Lost Traveler Reborn
by Adam Rook
Summary: Awoken on an alien planet, with missing memories and body, and unmatched arsenal. A young Vault Hunter - wannabe will be sure to live life to its fullest in this weird world of magic, grimm creatures and cute girls! {Edgy op mc, harem, brutality}
1. 1 - Awakening

So, you want to hear a story, eh?

One with very good plot and a deeper meaning behind it?

If yes, then too bad. I run out of stories like these.

So how about something a bit lighter, with tons of _rather_ dark humour, one-sided battles and maybe some sex later on. 'Couse why the fuck not?

Anyway, our story begins on a planet on the borderlands of one of many different galaxies.

**Pandora**

A planet far from forgotten, but maybe it would be better if universe did forget about it. This is not a planet of peace and love. They said it's a complete wasteland; that it's dangerous; that only a fool would search of something of value here.

They were wrong.

The legend of the Vaults - ancient crypts left by Eridians - race that lived before any humans - containing immeasurable riches and andvanced eridian technology. With the opening of the first Vault on Pandora it's been confirmed true. And ever since after that countless of "Vault Hunters" have appeared and started searching for more.

This is the tale of a young pandoran outlaw who had enough of scavenger's life and aimed for the stars. Many have called him a fool. Many have laughed at him and kept telling him he'll never achieve anything. But they underestimated the power of an overly-emotional young boy, who, as if to just be an asshole, succeeded in opening up a Vault and proving everyone wrong. However, little did he know this would be only the beginning of his story.

**Remnant**

A planet with a history forgotten even by its own inhabitants, far away from any other life in the infinite universe. Populated by humans and faunus alike. Abandoned and left behind by its creators for its slow and agonizing death. But humans are rather stubborn, clinging on their lives for as long as possible, never letting go of hope, even at the verge of extinction.

...and that's where the story **_truly_** begins.

* * *

"Aww shit..." - famous first words.

He was now laying somewhere with closed eyes.

_'Were I sleeping or have I passed out? Where am I? ...Aww shit, my head hurts...'_

Not without any effort he managed to sit up. Slowly opening his eyes he noticed that he is in some sort of a red forest. Not a sign of life in vicinity though.

*Breath in

*Breath out

"Aw man, where the hell am I? For sure not on Pandora... There aren't any forests like these there..."

With his right hand he started inspecting his head in search of any possible wounds.

"Shit, I must've hit myself in the head somehow... I don't remember what happened... Wait, who am I, again?"

Looking down at his own clothes he realised they were all torn and covered in now dry blood. Whether that blood was his own or someone else's was a mystery. The clothes he was wearing consisted of a light brown trench coat, a makeshift T-shirt made out of a few rags sewn together as well as pants and boots made out of leather of some indefinite pandoran animals. On his right hand there was a worn fingerless driver glove, and on his left one...

"...the fuck?" - his entire left arm was covered in some silver metal. Now, at first he thought this was some sort of armor, but no, that metal _was_ his arm.

Not believing in what he's seeing he moved the arm around, clenched a fist a couple of times and even tried pinching himself, but he didn't feel anything.

"...Holy shit... w-wait, what happened?" - one important detail he noticed was that his trench coat's left sleeve was ripped off, which made his apparently metal arm completely exposed. Looking at his shoulder he could clearly see that at some point his original arm has been either cut or ripped off, and he somehow got himself that prosthesis.

"O-okay, no need to panic... I... must've hit myself in the head and got some sort of amnesia, y-yes! That's it! I just... don't remember some things..." - although he succeeded in explaining his new arm to himself that only gave birth to more questions.

_'If that's the case then how much did I forget? ...What's the last thing that I remember?'_

He tried very hard to remember something, just to find a total void in his memories.

_'Okay, that's not gonna work, let's start with something simple... What is my name? ...It's... Jacob, right, Jacob Rook, that's what I've been called. Now... just who is Jacob Rook? ...I'm a... pandorean, right, born and raised on Pandora. An outlaw, a thief, a gun nut and a killer. An orphan. Mercenary raised by bandits.. Yeah, that's me... But I'm not a mindless psychopath. All I ever wanted was a chance to leave this trash planet... And that's why I became a...'_

"A Vault Hunter..." - he said aloud.

He tried to recollect more memories, but to no success. That's all he remembers for now.

_'Okay, okay, I know who I am, but I still don't remember what exactly happened or where in the hell am I... I could be literally anywhere for all I know... Hell, if I'm unlucky enough I could be on some planet that's even worse than Pandora...'_

*Breath in

*Breath out

_'...At least the atmosphere is breathable, that's good, because I don't think I have an Oz kit with me here...'_

While thinking of Oz kits, he got an idea to check his inventory. He looked to his left wrist, which is where his PDA was usually attached to, which at first he wanted to facepalm, couse you know, new arm and shit, but he got double surprised when he found out that this new arm also had a different PDA attached to it. Ignoring his confusion he clicked to activate it.

**_Boot sequence initiated._**

**_ECHO v 2. 109. 2391_**

**_Initializing Health Condition display module - 100%_**

**_Initializing Shield Condition display module - 100%_**

**_Initializing Weapon Status display module - Ready_**

**_Initializing Digital Bearing module - Ready_**

**_[All systems ready]_**

His PDA updated his vision with a HUD of sorts. In the bottom left corner of his vision he had two bars - a red one, which showed his body health status, and a blue one, which showed the condition of his shield, both at 100% right now. In the bottom middle there was a compass and in the upper right corner there was a... 'mini map' you could call it. The mini map should automatically scan his surrounding area, which will be crucial in not getting lost here. Speaking of...

"No signal?" - he said aloud. He wanted to activate the Echonet to find out on what planet he is right now, but if there is no Echonet signal here then that means he had to end up in the middle of fucking nowhere, because Echonet reached every corner of the colonised galaxies... Which means...

"I'm outside of the explored universe, aren't I?" - he said with a smile. But it wasn't a "I'm happy" type of smile, that was more of a "Holy shit I'm fucked" type of smile.

Many questions have appeared in Jay's head. For example how far away from Pandora is he exactly? How did he even end up here? Is there any intelligent life here?

*Sigh*

_'No use in overthinking this... gotta go forward and hope for the best...' - _and so he got up to his feet.

He stretched his arms (well, arm) and legs and once again looked around.

_'...There could be some rather dangerous animals in here...'_ \- he realised. - _'Pfft, like hell I'm going to die here!' _\- he scoffed.

Looking at his 'Inventory' tab in his PDA he got both happy and sad at the same time. Happy becasue he still had a shield and some guns. Sad because he had only three of them.

First:

_**Doc's Quad**_

_**Type: Shotgun**_

_**Manufacturer: Jakobs**_

_**Rarity: Rare (blue)**_

_**-consumes 4 ammo per shot**_

_**+50% critical hit damage**_

Second:

_**RV20-B Chimera**_

_**Type: Revolver**_

_**Manufacturer: Atlas**_

_**Rarity: Legendary (orange)**_

**_"A beast of many forms - fire, lightning and poison" _**\- every shot causes small explosions of random elements on hit.

...and something that's rather... unusual...

_**The Glutton**_

_**Type: Eridian Weapon**_

_**Manufacturer: Eridian**_

_**Rarity: ERR!/Rarity/Unknown (black)**_

_**"Feed Me" **_\- Weapon grows stronger with the user.

**_-Hold down the trigger to increase shot's power_**

The shield wasn't anything spectacular. Just a random green-rarity Tediore shield without any special effects

If Jay got surprised at the fact that he had a legendary revolver, after seeing the black one he was just _flabbergasted_ .

_'Holy fuck what is this?'_

Without thinking too much he materialized it in his hand. At first glance it didn't look like anything special. A silver flintlock pistol with grey gems on both of its sides.  
But after closer inspection he realised something. It wasn't silver. It was this weird material that eridian structures are made out of. Not only that, but there were some thin purple veins running around the gun that were pulsating with some purple substance inside - either liquid eridium or slag - which gave the feeling of the gun being alive. At that thought he facepalmed and shook his head.

_'Yeah, right, a gun that's alive, c'mon, Jay, you hit your head bit too hard this time'_ \- he scoffed himself in his mind.

But that created another thought - his 'metal' arm was also made out of the same material, and it also had the same 'veins'.

"Jeez looks like I forgot A LOT of things."

He was both amazed and scared at the thought - who knows what kind of trouble could he be in that he doesn't even remember right now?

"Well, whatever, the only thing I can do right now is to explore this planet and pray to god I'll find some civilization."

He tossed the Glutton from his right hand to his left one, while digistructing the Chimera in his right one. With now two guns he set off in the direction of South. Why South? Why not?

* * *

As he was walking he found yet another problem.

Ammo.

He doesn't have ANY in reserve. Meaning for now he has only six shots in his Chimera and one quadruple shot from his Quad. Thankfully the Glutton was an Eridian weapon, meaning it didn't use any ammunition, but instead relied on its eridian battery which could recharge itself over time. God bless Eridians.

And as if it wasn't enough he found YET ANOTHER problem.

*GROWL*

"Shit, I'm hungry..." - he said while grabbing his stomach.

'_Aw, man, problems everywhere, I need to list them all.'_

After a couple of clicks on his PDA he made a 'to do list' of sorts.

**_Lost Traveller_**

**_() get some food_**

**_() find out where you are_**

**_() get ammo and supplies_**

**_() get back to Pandora_**

_'That should be all...'_

_..._

As he was walking Jacob couldn't help but be amazed by his surroundings. The black trees with red leaves all around him gave him a feeling as if he was drowning in ocean of red. Also the way how leaves were slowly falling from trees gave him a weird feeling of tranquility.

'_Why are they falling so slowly? Maybe there's different gravity here? Possible.'_

It's a shame that he couldn't stop admiring the sight, because if he had paid more attention he would be able to notice that someone or something was creeping up on him between the bushes.

He did hear the sound of a stick cracking behind him, which made him instantly turn 180 degrees and raise his guns, but it was too late. A dark and massive figure has already jumped at him, knocking him down, causing him to drop his guns and pinning him to the ground. The monstrous figure on top of him opened its jaw, exposing its fangs. It all happened so fast the only thing he could do was to cover himself with his arms. And so he did. The creature launched its teeth at him, and bit into his arm...

...Just to immediately recoil back in surprise, as its fangs cracked after its attempt on biting Jacob's metallic arm. That was enough of an opening for him to take advantage of, as he just straight up punched the beast in its face and then kicked it away from himself with both of his legs, after which he jumped back up to his feet. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins, and his heart was beating like crazy. He almost died right away. Now that the creature was more wary of him it started growling. Right now Jacob could take a proper view at his attacker. A rather big, wolf-like creature that had pitch-black fur and some sort of a skull-like helmet on its head, some white, bone-like spikes grown out of its back and its body was also covered in bone-like plates. It was just as tall as him while on its fours, and one could see the blood lust emanating from its eyes.

"Son of a bitch... You think you can just jump at me like that!? If you bite me I'll fucking bite back!" - now that all fear has left Jacob's mind he replaced it with anger.

"I fought bigger and badder things than you so come at me, bro!" - he taunted.

As if the mindless beast understood, it charged at him again. With a demonic grin on his face Jacob waited until the very last moment, and then, right before wolf jumped at him he back rolled, positioning himself directly below the now mid-air wolf, materialized his Quad and shot at the creature from below. After that he kicked it with both of his legs once again, launching it a few meters to the side. It all happened in less than a second.

_'There goes my shotgun ammo...'_ \- he stated in his mind, rather disappointed. - '_Well, at least now I have something to eat...'_

But when he turned to face the corpse he saw how it turned into dust which then flew away with the wind.

_'...Or you know, I can go fuck myself...'_ \- he thought while frowning in annoyance.

He looked around in search of his handguns, which he had dropped. Thankfully he found them both, but the moment he picked them up from the ground he heard some more creatures approaching. Not wanting to be jumped at again, he instantly turned around and raised both of his handguns.

Two more of those werewolf-wannabes.

_'...On the bright side its a perfect occasion to test out these babies.'_ \- he thought with an evil grin on his face.

*BANG*

With a singular shot from chimera one of the werewolves recoiled back, grabbing its neck which got shot. Chimera's bullet also caused a small fire explosion, which caused the creature to start burning alive. Both Jacob and the other werewolf were just watching its dances of agony, until it finally burned to ashes before their eyes.

_'Yeah, that gun is pretty good...'_ \- he thought while inspecting it, after which he turned his gaze towards the last werewolf standing.

"Your turn." - it wasn't a threat, it was a _fact_.

Jacob aimed at it with the Glutton. _'Hold down the trigger for more power, right?'. _And he did just that. The moment he pulled the trigger gun started visibly charging up. Indicated by his HUD he charged the shot to approximately 1/3rd of its full power, and then released the trigger. The charging process gave the werewolf enough time to prepare for the attack, but still it failed to dodge the shot. It got hit in the arm, and the shot had enough power to completely blast it off. With a howl of pain the animal dropped to the ground, even though it was wounded it still emanated blood lust and was growling at him.

"Don't look at me like that. You started this fight, I'm just finishing it." - he threw some rather meaningless words and he double tapped it with a quick shot in between its eyes.

_'Yeah, Glutton ain't bad either.'_

After a few second the creature started turning into dust, as Jay expected, but what he didn't expect was the fact that Glutton's gem started shining white, and all the werewolf's ashes have started getting sucked into it, as if the gem was absorbing all of it. Soon an announcement popped up on his HUD.

_**Beowolf - Glutton form unlocked.**_

_'What's that?' - _he raised his eyebrow. Trying to interact with it he managed to open up a new tab in his PDA - 'Skilltree'. It consisted of the Glutton's image right in the middle with a bunch of circles surrounding it. Most circles had locks on them, signifying the fact that they were locked for now, except one. The one he had just unlocked.

Both the Glutton icon and the new one had short description on them.

_**Glutton - Default**_

_**Attack: Charged shot**_

_**Special: None**_

_**.**_

_**Grimm Series - Beowolf**_

_**Attack: Piercing shot**_

_**Special: Intimidating Howl**_

Looking back and forth between the screen and the gun in his left hand he tried to activate the newly unlocked one.

And right before his eyes the rather boring looking eridian flintlock gun changed its appearance completely with a flash of white. Now, Jacob was an extreme gun-enthusiast, thanks to which he was able to identify the gun that he was looking at. It looked like a Colt M1911 that was black with white decals here and there and with that werewolf's skull painted on each side of the barrel. Oh, sorry, _beowolf's, _apparently.

He aimed the gun at a tree and pulled the trigger...

*CLICK*

_'Huh?'_ \- now focused on the bottom right corner of his vision he noticed an exclamation mark above his weapon status module.

**_0/0 [!]_**

_'Out of ammo? But it doesn't need any... OH! I get it! The default form has infinite ammo, but not this one.'_ \- checking out weapon's description once again he saw that, indeed, the Beowolf form required pistol ammunition to fire. Pistol, not Revolver.

*Sigh*

_'Well, too bad. Whatever.'_

He looked around in search for more of these _beowolves_, but thankfully he didn't find any.

_'Let's just... continue moving forward...'_

And so he walked forward in a nigh-straight line for a couple hours at this point. But it was worth it. He found the way out of the forest, and now that he wasn't surrounded by a sea of red trees anymore he could see salvation. A city on the horizon, surrounded by giant walls.

"Jackpot!" - he cheered.

* * *

_**To be Continued...**_

* * *

**_[PDA Data / Creatures]_**

**_Beowolf (Grimm)_**

**_A grimm creature resembling a big wolf. High speed and dexterity, has sharp teeth and claws, enhanced reflexes and smell, but no supernatural abilities. Lives in packs, but lone beowolves exist too. Found most commonly in forests._**

**_Threat: D (singular) / C+ (pack)_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / Weapons]_**

**_The Glutton_**

**_An unusual eridian weapon with ability to absorb a wide range of materials and create alternative forms that weaponize absorbed materials' special properties. Can absorb deceased organisms too._**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / Personal Digistruct Module]_**

**_Equipped as a default part of the PDA, the PDM allows the user to dematerialize physical objects into energy, and store them within PDA's memory, with ability to re-materialize them afterwards._**

**_Max Item quantity: 25_**

**_Max Item weight: 100 kg (220 lbs)_**

* * *

_**[PDA Data / People]**_

_**Jacob Rook**_

_**Race: Human [Male]**_

_**Nationality: Pandora**_

_**Age: 17**_

_**Height: 1.85 m (6')**_

_**Description: A young mercenary, and a self-proclaimed Vault Hunter. Doesn't have a preferred weapon, but can use almost any weapon given to him with decent skill. A sociopath who sees humans (including himself) as not better than animals. Intelligent and great at manipulating others. Prefers overpowering enemies over outsmarting them, but can do both.**_

_**Threat: A-**_

_**Semblance: N/A**_

* * *

**\|||/**


	2. 2 - 1 - Welcome to Remnant, kiddo

City's walls weren't as much of an obstacle as they were only an annoyance, climbing was one of many different skills he acquired during the deathmatch called 'life' on Pandora, and with his artificial arm being able to easily dig into the smooth vertical side it was even easier. Once he got on top he impaled his fingers on the opposite side of that wall and slided all the way down while leaving a trail behind him. After landing he looked around, but it looked like he ended up in some uninhabited area, which was very convenient.

Fast forward fifteen minutes, and he was already inside the city itself. The architecture was something he never saw with his eyes before, but he did see it in some books he read as a kid. _'If I remember correctly it's something like from 20th or 21st century on Earth...'_ He thought, rather sceptically_ 'Please tell me they at least have some interplanetary means of transport here... I don't want to be stuck in this shithole forever...'_.

As he was walking some random people kept giving him stares. Most likely because of his torn clothes. Or the blood on them. Or his silver arm. Or all of the above. But they didn't look like they were about to shoot him in the back just because they felt like it. And that was surprisingly hard to get over. He was used to completely random people wanting to shoot him on sight for no reason whatsoever, but here? It looked like he himself was the most insane person here. _'Could this be? A planet with one of those fabled "governments"? Shit... It's been so long since I didn't have to fight like an animal 24/7 to just survive.'_

Peaceful planet or not, It doesn't matter. What matters right now is...

**_*GROOWL*_**

...To get something to eat.

He looked around, noticing a stall with hot dogs. Hot Dogs existed on Pandora, but were rather rare. _'Wonder what animals do they make it here from?'_

Rather pleased, he decided to have a go, but that's when he remembered.

_'Money... I don't have any...'_

He looked around, there were very few people around and there also wasn't any customers near the stall itself, and the guy inside it didn't look like the type of guy to pull out a shotgun from below the counter. He opened his inventory, just to confirm lack of any type of currency. Guns are the only thing he has.

_...Guns are the only thing he has..._

_***GROOWL***_

'_Eh, fuck it.'_

He got closer, with a fake smile on his face. The stall worker noticed him and almost jumped in place.

"U-Um... H-Hello, sir? What c-can I get for y-you?" - he was stuttering, most likely scared of Jacob's appearance.

"A big one with mustard."

"U-Umm... O-okay, that'll be five lien..."

"Excuse me?"

"U-um.. i said that'll be fi-..."

He has been cut short by Jacob pulling out a gun, the Glutton, and aiming it at his face.

"Listen, I know that what I'm doing is super pathetic, but I'm REALLY fucking hungry and I don't have any money right now, so how about you just give me one for free and I won't kill you?"

The guy paled and even stopped breathing for a few seconds, a drop of sweat appearing on his forehead.

_'Gotta give him props for not fainting...'_

"U-Umm...O-Okay..."

"See? Nobody has to get hurt, right?"

"R-Right..."

The guy then proceeded to make a hot dog in _record_ speed, and gave it to Jacob.

* * *

Going deeper inside the city Jay found many things that surprised him. First of all were the people. They looked... _normal_. Which wasn't normal to him. Nobody carried a gun, nobody had a psycho mask, people were wearing clothes instead of wandering around half-naked. And they all seemed so... what's the word... _sane_?

Another thing to catch his attention were the cars. _Fucking cars._ Like, actual cars, and not death machines on four wheels that had machine guns attached to them. Like... What the fuck?

But the weirdest thing had to be the lack of any conflicts around. No gunshots. No screams. No psychotic laughs.

_'Where the fuck am I? This feels like... I don't even know...'_

This is NOT the type of life he knew. Looking at his clothes again he realised that HE is the outlier here.

_'Okay, okay, If I remember correctly on planets with "governments" if you commit a crime you will get arrested or some shit, I don't even fucking know to be honest. Let's just... keep low profile for now, yeah.'_

**_Lost Traveller_**

**_(x) get some food_**

**_( ) find out where you are_**

**_( ) get ammo and supplies_**

**_( ) get back to Pandora_**

_'Heh, I can't really go and ask random people around what planet I'm on without looking like a lunatic, let's just focus on getting supplies for now.'_

And so he just started walking around, hoping to find a gun shop or something. On Pandora there were Marcus' gun vending machines on every corner, but here it wasn't that easy, but he kept walking. As he was walking he was able to hear whispers of some random people passing him by. What they said wasn't important. The important thing was that they all spoke in english. A thing he didn't even think about when talking to the hot dog seller. Even though he could speak a bit of german and russian, english was the only language he was fluent in. Anyway, he kept just walking around without a clear goal until it became dark. Because of his force of habitat he materialized his Chimera and Glutton and put them behind his waist, for faster access in case of getting attacked. He also started nervously looking around, still not believing no one will attack him. This continued for around ten minutes, until he came across a rather unusual shop that caught his interest. At first glance it looked like a jeweler's or a shop with fancy clothing. Big windows revealed some shelves that were inside, many various colours laying on them catching his attention. Finally, above the entrance a big inscription.

From Dust till Dawn.

With a raised eyebrow he was about to go past it, but he just couldn't get his eyes off the many colours inside. It felt as if they were calling him, giving him a feeling that he will regret it if he will not at least see what's all of that about. He thought about the void in his wallet, but the need to go inside was only increasing. That feeling was similar to the one he gets whenever he senses some good loot around. And you just _can't_ ignore that feeling.

_'Eh, fuck it.'_

With those words inside his head he decided to enter inside the shop. While he was approaching the glass door he was able to see his reflection, a teenage boy with dark brown, moppy hair and gray eyes. He had a scar on his right cheek, right under his eye. He raised his hand to touch it, remembering how he got it. He shook his head and proceeded to enter the shop. The door caused the bell above it to ring, gaining the shopkeepers attention. He was an older man with gray, balding hair. He raised his eyebrows at the sight of Jacob's attire, but didn't come closer nor said anything. _'Maybe it will be better this way...'_.

Ignoring him, Jacob looked around, noticing only one customer other than him. The rather small figure was turned away from him and was covered with a hooded cloak. Ignoring it for now he started looking at the colorful things on the shelves. There were many differently coloured crystals with their prices next to them. What were they exactly was a mystery._'It's probably just jewelry...'. _He shook his head, thinking that coming here was pointless, but he guessed that since he's already here he might as well look around a bit more. He put his hands in his pockets and started moving forward. The hooded figure was in his way however, reading some indefinite magazines. At first he wanted to just walk past him/her but as he was doing so he caught a glimpse of the magazine. It was about GUNS. The keyword "Weapons" on the cover successfully caught his full attention. In short, Jacob was a real gun nut, and he instinctively wanted to gain some knowledge about this world's firearms, because, since he was outside of Echonet's signal, it also was possible that big corporations like Vladof or Dahl didn't know that this planet even existed, which would mean there wouldn't be any weapons he is familiar with. Which would SUCK.

Anyway, looking at the pictures in this magazine he confirmed his concerns after not being able to identify any famous gun manufacturers. Although a bit disappointed, he kept reading over that person's shoulder. Being so close managed to get a better look at the hooded person, even though he didn't mean to. Despite the fact that he still hasn't seen the face, he was able to identify the person as a girl, based on her rather petite hands and overall her nice smell _'Is it weird that i smelled her? It's not like I did it on purpose...'._ He shook his head to free it from such stupid thoughts. The girl was a head shorter than him, and was wearing a red cloak with a hood over her head, and looking at the hands that were holding the magazine that they both were now reading she was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt. Jacob was able to hear some muffled music coming from under her hood, _'Headphones, I guess.'. _After figuring out that it could be awkward if she were to turn towards him he decided to grab a magazine of his own from the shelf. He decided to go with one titled: "Hybrid Weapons", which was quite understandable. '_This sounds absolutely badass'. _When he reached his hand towards it the girl finally noticed his presence, previously being completely oblivious. She recoiled back a bit, rather surprised, and looked at him curiously, her eyebrows raising at the sight of his torn and bloody clothes. She took the headphones off and hanged them on her neck.

"Umm... hi?" - she said with still raised eyebrow.

Dumbfounded Jay frowned and looked around, not noticing anybody else he had to assume she talked to him.

"Hello?"

"Are you... okay?"

"...what? Why wouldn't I?"

"Well you look like you just wrestled with an alpha beowolf..." - she said with a rather concerned face while pointing at his clothes.

"Well... that's technically... exactly what happened..." - he said while shrugging. (technically, yeah.)

"Wait, really!?"

"...Yeah?"

"What, are you a huntsman or something?"

After guessing that a huntsman must be a job responsible for getting rid of those things he fought earlier he decided to go with the flow.

"Kind of..."

Gasp* "Are you a hunstman-in-training!?"

"...Yeah?"

"Omygoshthatsjustlikeme!" - she said at a _very_ high speed, so much so that it was barely understandable. She looked like she realised it and got ashamed a bit, as indicated by her slightly red cheeks, but she quickly regained composure and cleared her throat - "...Umm... Anyway, what's your name?" - she asked.

Jacob was about to scold himself for wasting time with strangers, but he quickly changed his mind. If he could make friends with her it could turn out to be useful when he will want to learn something about this world, the only problem would be to pretend to be from here...

"Jacob..." - he introduced himself.

"I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose! ... uhh..." - she started looking around, as if she didn't know what to do. She decided to reach her hand to him, with intent to shake hands. Jacob could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

Not knowing what to do he just decided to shake it, with a fake awkward smile on his face.

"So.. umm... Where do you study? I'm at signal Academy..." - she started conversation.

He clicked his tongue and mentally facepalmed. _'Yup, pretending to be from around here...'_.

"I... uhh... you could say I was getting 'private lessons'" - he managed to come up with.

"Ohh... Has a professional huntsman thought you? If you'll say their name maybe I will know them!"

"N-no, he isn't that well-known... Anyway, what are you reading?" - He quickly changed the subject

"Huh? Oh, that?" - she pointed at the magazine - "It's just that... I really like guns, you know..." - she said, rather ashamed.

"Well that makes two of us." - he said with a smile - _'That's what I need! A shared interest!'_

"Really? You got any?" - she said with a happy tone.

"Actually, yeah." - he said while partially pulling out The Glutton from behind his waist, just enough to show her, with a smirk on his face.

"Ohh! I have one too!" - she said while pulling out something that was attached to her waist, under her cloak.

Frowning in confusion Jay couldn't quite identify the gun, if that even truly is a gun. To be honest it looked more like a red metal box.

"Umm... And it shoots?"

"Of course it does! It's in its inactive form right now!"- She looked around, mainly at the old man behind the counter - "I could show you outside, you know."

"...Maybe some other day..." - he said, causing her to sigh in disappointment.

At that moment a bunch of men entered the shop. The very moment he laid his eyes on them, he immediately knew:

_'...Bandits...'_

They were a bunch of dudes in black suits with red glasses. But the worst part had to be the fact that they all were wearing fedoras. _'...Actual mafia?'_ . One of the thugs was wearing a different attire - a white coat, leather gloves, ginger hair with a long forelock that covered one of his green eyes, he was also wearing a black bowler hat and had a cane in hid hand.

Together with his group of generic mobs he approached the old man behind the counter while smoking a cigarette

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop opened this late?" - he said, while one of his men aimed his gun at the shopkeeper.

_'Okay, so this stuff is called 'dust', cool, now what do i do?' - _he was considering helping the old man in hopes of getting some payment afterwards.

"Please, just take my lien and leave..."

"Shushushsuh... Calm down, we're not here for the money..." - The bandit leader said with a calm voice, after which he turned to his men and ordered: "Grab the dust."

Bandits then proceeded to grab the crystals from the shelves and load that colorful sand into some kind of canisters.

_'So dust is valuable enough to make robberies for it? ...Interesting...'_

"Oh my..." - Ruby, who was right next to him, whispered - "What do we do?"

Jay turned to her and raised his eyebrow, not expecting that such a ..._small girl_... would want to take action. In fact, he was expecting her to freak out, small part of him hoping he could impress her with his own bravery. (But can it be called "bravery" if he is certain of his success?)

"Can you fight?"

"Pfft. Of course!"

"...Want to beat them up?"

"Sure!"

Little did Ruby know that the two of them knew two completely different meanings of the phrase 'Beat them up'.

_'Okay, okay, killing is prohibited, unless it was in self-defense, right? I just have to make it look like they attacked first and then I'll be good, right?'_

One of the bandits finally noticed them. He inspected them, probably getting weirded out by Jacob's clothes. Anyway, he frowned and reached for something behind his back...

Jacob immediately put his hands on his handguns, ready to win that truxican standoff...

...But the fucker pulled out a _fucking machete..._

Jay almost bursted with laughter at that, he was expecting something more... _civilised_, but no, fucker pulled out a melee weapon.

"Alright, kids, put your hands where I can see them."

Jacob's eyebrow twitched. _'Did the fucker just call me a kid? Ohh, he is sooo dead...'_ \- Jacob then looked over his shoulder to look at Ruby, a mix of anger and impatience visible on her face.

"Can I get him?" - she asked.

"...Sure, why not?" - he answered after figuring out that this could be a perfect occasion to see her combat capabilities. Although he still had his doubts, the girl did look confident in her abilities, and she did have a gun with her. (Or at least she said it was a gun.)

"Hehehe..." - she giggled, causing both Jacob and that bandit to raise their eyebrows, after which she run up to the bandit so fricking fast that Jacob could only see a black-red blur that collided with the thug, and launched him a couple meters back, breaking the shop's windows in the process.

_'HOLY SHIT! Is... is this considered 'normal' around here?... damn...'_

"What the fuck!?" - all of the other bandits got alerted, and pulled out their weapons, which ranged from similar machetes to some handguns. Some of them went outside, wanting to get that girl while the rest noticed Jacob and wanted to get him.

Jacob's PDA activated its 'combat mode', activating his shield, marking all of the bandits as red dots on his minimap and compass, and started showing their health bars floating above their heads, visible only to Jacob. Jacob smirked, it looked like the girl wasn't holding back, which means he doesn't have to either.

He pulled out his Glutton and started firing while jumping from cover to cover, landing hits in between. His PDA showed that none of them had any shields, but for some reason they had a lot of health, it took four uncharged bodyshots from his gun to kill a singular opponent.

BANG* - a bandit shot at him, the bullet flying right over his head. He jumped behind cover, but one of those idiots with machetes has gotten close in the meantime. He raised his machete with a clear intent to kill, but he didn't know what he just signed up for.

CLANK* - Jacob caught the machete mid-swing with his metallic arm, causing the bandit to drop his jaw and raise both of his eyebrows.

"What the f-...*BANG*" - he has been cut short by Jacob shooting him in the stomach, which made him loosen his grip on the machete. Utilizing this Jacob pulled it out of his hand, smacked his face with a right backhand, which resulted in the bandit making a nice 180 turn. Jay finished him off by shooting him in the back of the head.

Jacob grabbed the looted machete properly and prepared for more, there still were two thugs inside the shop, and judging by the sounds coming from outside that Ruby girl was also still fighting with some. Also, the bandit leader was somewhere out of sight. _'Let's end this quickly.'_

With the glutton in his right hand and that machete in the left he rushed towards the two remaining thugs. Fuckers didn't know what to do, and the one with a gun started to shoot at him, even managing to hit him twice, but Jay's shield absorbed both shots while still having around 50% of its energy left. Once Jay got close the one with machete launched forward to attack him, just for Jay to swiftly dodge it, causing the thug to lose his balance. Jay kicked him right into the other one, effectively stunlocking both of them, after which he launched his own blade at them, impaling them both at once. Just to be sure he followed with a couple shots to the chest of the one in the front. He picked up the second machete, leaving the first one inside those two corpses and turned towards the exit, he could see that that Ruby girl was still fighting, now wielding a giant red scythe._ 'Wait, is THAT her weapon? How does she even lift it?'_

Shaking his head in disbelief he guessed that there's no use in overthinking this situation. He raised his gun, ready to fire, but...

_'...She already__ go__t everyone?'_ \- he thought, impressed, while watching many unconscious bodies just laying on the street. _'Okay, she's not as defenseless as I thought...'_

Ruby was now facing off the bandit leader, who looked disappointed with his crew, yet somehow you could feel he lowkey expected this to happen.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were..." - He scoffed at a bandit's body that was laying next to his feet. He looked up, facing Ruby.

"Well, red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening..." - he said while dropping his cigarette to the ground and extinguishing it with his cane. - "...And as much as I'd love to stick around..." - He now raised his cane and aimed at her (?) - "...I'm afraid that this is where we part ways..." - he said while his cane ejected a sight of sorts from its end.

_'Wait, this cane is a gun!? Holy fuck that's both badass and weird...'_

Nevermind that, he can't exactly afford that little red hood girl dying on him so he guessed he'd better do something.

CLICK* - sound of his gun's hammer being cocked back.

"I second that..." - he said with intent to make a hole in his brain.

"Oh boy..." - the mafioso said, not really surprised, after which he quickly struck Jacob with his cane in his stomach.

Now, shields do protect him from melee attacks, so he didn't feel much pain, but laws of physics still apply in this situation, so he still got pushed back. The strike's impact made him unintentionally pull the trigger, releasing a shot in some random direction, but not hitting anyone in the process. Once Jay raised his head he could see the cane-gun's barrel aimed right at him.

_'Oh shit.'_

BANG*

The cane then fired some sort of a flare at him, he didn't have the time to dodge, so he just covered himself with his arms and braced for the impact. And when he got hit he got sent flying a couple meters back, back inside the shop, while breaking a different window in the process. He didn't feel that much pain, but when he opened his eyes his shield was broken, and his health at roughly 90% . He heard ringing in his ears and his vision was blurry.

"Oh god, are you okay!?" - Ruby's muffled voice could be heard alongside the pitch. Looking in her direction he could see a black-red stain that was closing in on him. He grabbed his head and tried getting up, failing in the process.

"Keep laying, you got hit pretty bad" - he felt her touch that pushed him down, towards the ground. He also felt something soft being placed below his head, akin to a pillow.

_'I can't lay down if that fucker is still alive...'_

Calling out to his body's energy reserves he once again tried getting up, his vision and hearing even returning to normal, allowing him to see Ruby's face that was right above him. It was...pretty... young, with smooth features, small nose, thin eyebrows and rather pretty gray eyes, he could also see her short black hair with red ends. She frowned at him and once again pushed him down.

"...Eh?" - he woke up from his trance.

"I told you to not get up! You got hit pretty bad..." - she said while looking down at his body, possibly in search for any wounds.

Now looking around Jay noticed that she was giving him a lap pillow. -_'Oh fuck yeah!' -_ though as much as he wanted to stay like this a bit longer there was still that one thing that didn't let him relax.

"W-Where's the cane guy?"

"He run off somewhere, but it doesn't matter, he won't do anything, so keep laying."

"WHAT!?" - he immediately got up to his feet, much to Ruby's (and his own) surprise and pulled out his Chimera (he dropped the Glutton while getting hit.)

"HEY!" - Ruby shouted at him while getting up herself

Jacob run outside the shop and looked around, finding his dropped gun. He quickly run up to it and picked it up with his left hand. Now dual-wielding his guns he started looking around for the fucker that shot at him, to no success at first, but he didn't give up. From experience he knew that people NEVER look up when searching for someone, so he did just that, and would you look at that? He noticed a white figure on one of the rooftops.

"You sure you are okay?" - Ruby's voice from behind him.

"He's on the rooftops!" - he said while pointing in bandit's direction and taking aim with the Glutton. However, although this handgun was black-rarity, it was still just a handgun, so landing a hit from that far away will be quite difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. Though he still missed. The thug on the rooftops heard gunshots and looked at them. He then started running even faster than before right towards the building's edge.

_'He's not going to jump off, right?'_

"Hold on, I've got this!" - Ruby said.

He looked at her, noticing that she was now carrying her giant scythe. - _'Pfft, what are you gonna do? Snipe the fucker with a melee weapon?'_ \- And as to confirm his thoughts, her scythe started transforming into something else. After a few metallic clanks it was no longer a scythe, but instead a gun that looked like a mix between an old-tech hyperion sniper rifle and a tediore shotgun. It also had a small scope on top.

With amazement all over his face he found himself at a loss of words. _'...Badass...' _\- he thought.

She aimed for a couple of seconds, but has been interrupted by a loud sound of airplane engines and some bright lights coming from behind the building. After a few seconds a big flying machine emerged above the rooftops, it looked quite similar to a pandoran buzzard, and definitively served a similar purpose. It positioned itself next to the building's edge and opened its doors, leaving a rather obvious massage that it was on the crime boss' side. This theory was confirmed when the man in question jumped aboard, and faced towards them.

"End of the line, lovers!" - he taunted while throwing something in their direction. It was a small, red object that didn't look much, but Jay figured out it could be dangerous, so he turned away and started running while grabbing Ruby by her arm. Again, he couldn't quite afford her dying on him, she can be useful later on.

_'Shit, shit, shit... My shield's down so a grenade can actually kill me right now...'_

The red object fell onto the ground and started rolling, but then the bandit in white shot with his cane again, aimed at the object. In that split second that happened while the cane's projectile was travelling Jay recognized the red object as one of those crystals from the shop. His intuition already telling him that shit's gonna explode, and since he didn't have time to run any further he decided to do something that was rather silly, but will definitively increase his (and that girl's) chances of survival.

He tackled her and together with her he dropped to the ground, while shielding her from any possible shrapnel.

**_*BOOOM*_** \- his intuition was right. In a fraction of a second he could hear the loud bang, the blast wave on his back and the heat. Thankfully he didn't feel any sharp fragments indulging themselves in his back. _'Well that explosion was just... disappointing... But hey! I'm alive so I don't complain!' - _Once all of those sensations went away he raised his head just to notice something that easily was the weirdest thing he had ever seen, including all the weird stuff he saw on this planet so far.

The reason why the explosion was so weak was because, believe it or not, a certain lady, dressed in a white shirt, short black skirt and high stockings, with a cape that was black on one side and purple on the other, she had blonde hair tied into a knob and was carrying some sort of a wand in her hand. But what was before her was the real deal. An actual magical barrier. A fucking, magical barrier. Jay didn't believe in magic but he didn't find any other words to describe it, there even was a generic evil pentagram in the middle of it.

"Whoah..." - Ruby exclaimed from below him **_( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡)_**

_'So it's unusual even for her? That's... good? I don't even know.'_

He got back up and helped Ruby do the same, earning a blush from her. _'...What's her deal?'_

You would think that at this point nothing more would surprise him, but no. It was only the beginning. The blonde woman then waved her wand, releasing something that Jay could only describe as 'magic missiles' that flew towards the plane, causing some minor explosions on hit and shaking the machine up. Since the doors were still opened, there was a chance of that mafioso-wannabe falling to his death, which Jay lowkey wanted to witness. Unfortunately it looked like the bandit in question managed to get inside the cockpit, much to Jay's disappointment. However, the blonde witch wasn't having any of that and then casted another spell. _'Apparently witches exist here? ...Maybe she's a siren?'. _Anyway, the spell was aimed directly above the plane-like machine, and it soon created some storm clouds out of nothing. Like, the sky was completely cloudless just a few seconds ago, and right now there was a pretty big black cloud right above the plane. The witch then swinged her wand downwards, causing the clouds to start raining with sharp ice spikes. Some even managing to pierce through the cockpit's glass.

If you are wondering why Jacob himself wasn't doing anything, it was simply because it was too fucking weird for him to process. He saw a lot of weird things on this planet, but nothing like this.

At that moment, from the shadows within the flying machine's doors a slim figure emerged. It wasn't the same guy though, but instead a lady in a red dress. Her face was covered in the darkness, though Jay could see her shining yellow eyes even from that far away. She raised her hands, one of them setting ablaze. _'Now there's TWO of them... what the fu-...'_

**_*BOOM*_** \- another explosion erupted right before the three of them

_'Holy shit!'_

This time, however, there were tons of sharp fragments everywhere, but they... _stopped in place? Oh, that blonde one has stopped them. Probably telekinesis or whatever the fuck it was called...'_

His brain just stopped responding at that moment, and while the two witches continued their magical standoff he just stood there and watched them like an idiot, too dumbfounded to do anything.

BANG* BANG* *BANG*

_'What's that? Oh, Ruby joined in on the fun too? I don't even care anymore..._

_...Just what in the FUCK is going on!?'_

Long story short? The bad guys got away.

Once the plane-like machine disappeared behind some random buildings and its engines couldn't be heard anymore the blonde witch faced towards them, her expression rather annoyed.

"You're a huntress!" - happy Ruby noted.

_'Huntress? So she takes care of those werewolf thingies, right?'_

Her expression stayed completely unchanged, just staring at Ruby.

"Can i get your autograph!?" - the red hood girl asked.

* * *

**_To be continued_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Ruby Rose_**

**_Race: Human [Female]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant / Vale_**

**_Height: 1.58 m (5.2 ')_**

**_Age: 15_**

**_Description: Sweet, naive, with hero complex. Rather shy at first but opens up after getting to know her, becoming surprisingly talkative. She's a student at 'Signal Academy' where she trains to become a huntress. Her weapon of choice seems to be a scythe that can transform into a sniper rifle._**

**_Threat: C+_**

**_Semblance: Speed Increase_**

* * *

**\||/**


	3. 2 - 2 - Home

Everything happened so... fast...

Jay was simply too dumbfounded after everything he had witnessed, and because of that he didn't think in time that he should get away while he had the chance. And now he was seeing the consequences: He was about to get interrogated by that witch lady. He was taken to some sort of a police station and locked in a room with that Ruby girl. The room was small, dark, without any windows. The only thing inside it was a table with four chairs next to it, with him and Ruby sitting next to each other in awkward silence.

"...Hey..." - she started

"Yeah?"

"Remember when you tackled me to the ground and shielded me from the explosion?"

_'Aw hell yeah man, she's already mine!'_

"Yeah, I do, it did happen like 30 minutes ago..."

"Well... You know... I have a speed semblance, so I could just run outside of its range without your help... heh..."

Jay widened his eyes and mentally facepalmed, his pride taking a hit.

"I'll... keep that in mind..."

"But still, thanks..." - she said with an awkward smile.

At that moment their conversation was interrupted by the door opening, with the witch lady coming inside.

She slowly approached, frowning at them, making it clear she wasn't exactly friendly.

"I hope you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, youngsters..." - she started, causing Jay to roll his eyes. - "You put yourself and others in great danger..."

"They started it!" - Ruby protested - "Right, Jacob?"

_'Aaand she told them my name... Does she even think?'_

"Pfft. I dunno..." - he said while shrugging his arms. You can guess that he just wanted to get this over with. Ruby's response was to look at him with disappointment on her face.

"...If it were up to me.." - Witch Lady continued, ignoring them - "You'd be sent home..." - _'Yes, please!' - _"With a pat on the back... And a slap on the wrist." - she ended her sentence with a swing from her wand, hitting the table. The sudden move caused Ruby to jump on her seat, and Jacob to roll his eyes for the second time.

"...But... There is someone here who would like to meet you..." - she said, after which she moved aside, revealing that there was a man standing in the door frame behind her all along. He looked to be a middle-aged man with gray hair and brown eyes. On his nose he had a pair of glasses that looked way too small to be actually useful. He was wearing a black coat, and underneath a black button-up vest with something that looked like a green jumper beneath, as well as black pants in addition. He had a mug of coffee in his left hand, and in his right a plate with... _'Are those ACTUAL MOTHERFUCKING COOKIES!?' _

"Ruby Rose..." - he started, looking at the girl next to him, after which his gaze switched to him. - "...aaand Mr.?"

_'The witch already knows my name, so coming up with a fake one is pointless...'_

"Jacob Rook."

The man looked at him for a moment after which he hummed and said: "Truly, an unusual name..."

_'Aw, fuck, if this keeps up they soon will realize I'm not from here... I need to be more careful...'_

The gray haired man came closer and sit in front of them putting down his plate and mug. He quickly glanced over Ruby, and then over Jacob, his eyes widening at the sight of his still messed up clothing.

"You both... have silver eyes..." - the man quietly said after finishing inspecting them.

_'Seriously? THAT's what he wants to talk about? Perhaps silver eyes are a rarity on this planet?'_

"Umm...?" - Confused Ruby didn't know how to respond. Meanwhile Jay figured out it will be better to keep his mouth shut for now.

"Anyway... Hmm... Where should we start..." - the man continued their conversation. After a short while of thinking and inspecting the duo he looked at the witch, and gave her a sign to come closer. Without any words he nodded his head, giving her some predetermined order, which caused her to pull out a tablet of sorts. After a couple of clicks it started playing some sort of a video. She turned the tablet towards them, showing off that this video showed Ruby fighting with those mobsters outside the shop. _'Surveillance cameras... I should have seen this coming...'. _Thankfully it looked like it didn't record him or any of his murders.

"So... Where did you learn to do this, Ruby?" - The man asked, pointing at the small screen.

"S-Signal Academy... ?" - she hesitantly replied.

_'Ah, yeah, she did say something about that... Is that a school for warriors? I thought it would be one of those general high schools I heard about back in the day...'_

"They taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"

_'WHAT!? A fucking scythe, a farmer's tool, is "one of the most dangerous" weapons this planet has to offer? What the_ _fuck!?' - _Jay thought/panicked in his mind. A couple of quick clicks on his PDA under the table later he dematerialised his Glutton and Chimera, which both were still attached to his waist, back into his inventory. _'If only these idiots could see a standard issue Torgue rocket launcher, or a Vladof minigun... Or an Atlas sniper rifle... Or anything from Pandora, really... their tiny brains would explode...'_

"Well, one teacher in particular..." - Ruby answered the older man.

"I see..." - the man replied, after which he moved the plate with cookies closer to them, earning a raised eyebrow from Jacob.

_'Holy fuck... When was the last time I ate fucking cookies? ...Like, ten years ago? Damn, I'm getting old...'_ \- Jacob nostalgically thought.

Although hesitant at first, Ruby quickly reached for one of them, and ate it all in one go. Jacob was rather unsure if he could take one too, so he reached his hand towards the plate and looked questioningly at the man. After earning a positive nod, he grabbed one too. This sort of behavior was rather unusual for him, since he usually took things he wanted without permission, but these cookies unlocked some distant memories that melted his heart for a split second. After which it quickly froze again.

"It's just that... " - the man interrupted the eating duo - "I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before... A dusty old crow..."

"MMMM... " - Ruby moaned with her mouth full of cookies - "Thash muh unkul!"

The rather inaudible response caused both males in the room to raise their eyebrows at her. Realising her mistake, she quickly swallowed all the cookies inside her mouth and said: "Sorry... that's my uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at signal..."

_'Wait, so if I understand correctly, then it means that apparently that Ruby girl is a rather talented warrior... Huntsman-in-training, was it? Heh, looks like I truly won a lottery by meeting her...'_

"I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. And now I'm all like: _Hooowaa! Witchaaa!_"- she said while making some karate moves in the air at the last part.

_'I take that back...' -_ Jacob deadpanned.

"So I've noticed." - the rather amused older man said. - "And what is such an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

"Well, I want to be a huntress..."

_'...I wonder if she would want to leave this planet with me and become a VAULT HUNTRESS? Definitively much cooler job than running around fighting these_ _beowolf thingies'_

"You want to slay monsters?" - the man continued asking her.

"Yeah."

_'Hey, Vault Hunters can do that!'_

"I only have two more years at Signal, and then I'm going to apply to Beacon..."

_'Two more years, eh? That makes me think, how old is she even?... She can't be older than me, and I'm seventeen...'_

"...You see, my sister's starting there this year,..."

_'She has an older sister?' - _Jay thought while imagining a slightly taller version of Ruby, maybe with longer hair and bigger breasts, a small smile appearing on his face.

"...and she's trying to become a huntress, and I'm trying to become a huntress, 'cause I wanna help people..."

_'Ahh, a good samaritan type... what a waste...'_

"... My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought: "Hey, I may as well make a career out of this..."..."

_'...Parents... right...' -_ Jay swallowed his spit at the bitter thought.

"...I mean, the police are alright, but huntsman and huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting! AND REALLY, GOSH, YOU KNOW!" - she finished her odd speech with a screech of excitement.

The man and witch looked at her for a second without saying a word, making the room fall into awkward silence for a moment, until the man ended it with those words:

"...Do you know who I am?"

"You're professor Ozpin..."

_'Professor, as in, a teacher or an actual scientist?'_

"...You're the headmaster of Beacon."

_'Teacher then, so he's useless to me...'_

The older man chuckled: "Hello."

"Nice to meet you."

* * *

**_Ozpin_**

* * *

**_He just wants to help!_**

* * *

Jay could only raise his eyebrows for the Nth time today at this rather delayed introduction.

"You want to come to my school?"

"More than anything."

Ozpin smiled and looked at the still anonymous witch lady, who only rolled her eyes with a loud: "Hmmph."

"Well, okay." - was his simple answer, earning a gasp of joy from the girl.

"Really!?"

"Yes, really, I will make all the necessary arrangements so that after the holidays you will be signed at Beacon."

"OHMYGOSHTHANKYOU!"

Ozpin chuckled once again and took a sip from his mug. Once he finished his expression became much less happy, and he was now looking at Jay.

_'Ahh, shit...'_

"So, mr. Rook... You've been quite quiet all this time, and thank you for that. But its your turn now."

Jay straightened up and shrugged.

"I guess..." - he said with tired tone...

"Hmm... where should we start... Ruby, do you know him?"

"Well..." - she looked at him - "...Yes, but actually no." - her answer caused Ozpin to raise one of his eyebrows.

"We've met for the first time today..." - Jay elaborated.

"Yeah, we both were inside the dust shop when the robbery happened. We saw that we both had the same interests so we talked for a while..."

"What "interests" do you mean?"

_'Wait, is being into guns here normal or weird? Ruby's into them and even has a gun with herself right now...'_

"Well... You know... Guns... and stuff..." - Ruby said with awkward smile.

_'Judging by her awkwardness it isn't 100% normal, but since she did say it aloud it means it also isn't forbidden or anything...'_

"Hmm... Guns you say..." - Ozpin said while looking at Jacob suspiciously. - "Ruby, Glynda... could you please leave the two of us alone?"

Although rather confused at first, Ruby nodded and proceeded to leave the room, the witch lady now identified as 'Glynda' followed her, and before leaving turned over her shoulder, frowning at Jacob, giving a clear 'I don't like you' message.

"...So..." - Ozpin started their conversation. - "I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again, I don't even know where to start..."

"..."

"Alright, how about that: ... Are you aware that you committed a crime?"

Jay remember how one time in the past someone told him about how planets with governments work, mainly how to avoid getting caught on them. _'See, kid, if someone will ever accuse you of anything on a planet like that you have to pretend to be completely unaware of what the dude's talking about. Until he brings up some evidence. Then you have to pretend to be stupid. And if all of that still doesn't work just shoot the bastard and get the fuck outta there.'_

"Did I?" - Jay said while faking confusion.

Ozpin gave him a tired look and sighed.

"There have been eight criminals found on the crime scene. Four of them were unconscious... And four of them were found dead."

"D-Dead?" - now with some fake surprise/fear.

"You and Ruby were the only people other than the criminals themselves and the shop owner on the crime scene. Yet as we've just seen, the camera recordings showed it that she didn't kill anyone. Ruby stated that you 'took care' of criminals inside the shop. All the dead ones were found, believe it or not, INSIDE the shop. And here you are, with all of your clothes torn and covered in blood. Please, respect me at least a little and stop pretending to be oblivious. I'm not that stupid."

"..."

Ozpin took a sip from his coffee mug and cleared his throat.

"I understand that you did it _mainly _in self-defense, and that under such circumstances people can do all sorts of things they wouldn't do normally... "

"..."

"...And that's why _originally _I was going to let it slide, you know, make all the boring paper work and send you back home, but that's where things started to become... _interesting..."_

Jay kept quietly listening with a finger ready to click all the necessary buttons on his PDA to digistruct his guns in case he needed to fight his way out of here.

"You see... I already knew your name before I even asked, Ruby told Glynda even before we've locked you two in here... Sorry about that, by the way."

_'Whatever, honestly...'_

"...So the very first thing I did was to search for your info in the police database.."

_'...I already know what it means... damn it...'_

"...Just to be met with a rather unpleasant surprise... There is literally ZERO information about any man named 'Jacob Rook' in the register, which means one of two things..." - he raised one of his fingers - "You lied about your name." - now he raised a second one - "Or you are not from Vale... So, which one is it?"

_'Vale? Is that this country's name? ...Anyway, no point in lying, really.'_

"The latter."

Ozpin smirked and said: "That's what I thought... But that's where we get to the funniest part" - he said after his smirk got replaced with an emotionless expression.

"I haven't found any information about your name, so I started searching for reports of people with appearance similar to yours... And I was pretty... _shocked _when I found this." - he said while pulling out some paper folder from under his cloak. - "This is a report about a rather... _unusual_ type of robbery"

Jay widened his eyes after realising what it is. Ozpin opened it and started reading some fragments.

"August 30th. That's today, by the way. A robbery with a gun and death threats on a..." - he looked right into Jacob's eyes - "... Hot dog stall..."

_'Ahhh shit. Well, I'm fucked.'_

"But the best part has to be the robber's description: young male, dark brown moppy hair, silver eyes, wearing a torn and bloody cloak, with a scar on his right cheek, right under his eye ..."

Jacob looked away, cringing at what he heard.

"I was... REALLY fucking hungry, you know..."

"Hahaha..." - Ozpin chuckled - "Is that all you have to say?"

"REALLY. FUCKING. HUNGRY."

**_*GROOOWL*_**

"And I still am, apparently..." - he said while grabbing his stomach, earning a rather concerned look from Ozpin.

"...It says here that you used a gun to threaten the... hot dog seller... Is that true?"

"Listen, I know it's not really allowed on this planet, but I don't have any money, and a starving person does crazy things to eat something. I was just scaring him, of course I wouldn't shoot him..." _'I would just beat the shit out of him and steal all his sausages...'_

"You say that... Yet you shot all those criminals without much hesitation, didn't you?"

"THAT... is a completely different case, they had weapons too, you know? If i didn't kill them first they could kill me... Or that Ruby girl, you know?"

"I understand, but... who should live and who should die aren't things for us to decide. Ruby, for example, only knocked them unconscious, so why couldn't you?"

"Hah! Do you think I will risk my own life trying NOT to kill someone who tries to kill me? Do you think they wouldn't kill me if they could? What makes _them_ able to decide if I should die or not?"

"...You do realise that this way you aren't any better than them?"

"...What if I don't care?"

At that moment they looked each other in each other's eyes in silence, tension in the room easily felt. Until Ozpin looked down and softly smiled.

"Tell me... Where are your parents now?"

Completely unprepared Jacob clicked his tongue and also looked down, gritting his teeth.

_'Fuck, right, if I'm below eighteen I need parents for everything...'_

The rather awkward silence continued for a moment, until Ozpin decided to speak up.

"I... I think I understand..."

_'Do you?'_

"...So tell me, what should I do with you?"

"Release me, please?" - he said while quickly changing his grim look to fake puppy eyes, earning a chuckle from Ozpin.

"... Right now I have a young boy, probably emotionally unstable because of his puberty, armed with a gun, without his parents around, who also happens to not be from around here, and right now he is hungry, penniless and his clothes are all torn and messed up... What about a place to stay? You have anywhere to come back to?"

Jay's another tongue click was enough of an answer.

"Okay... What about your education? Where did you go to school?"

_'Should i just lie and say that I was at signal academy with Ruby? ...No, if I were he would find something in the register, so he won't fall for that...' _\- It took too much time for Jacob to come up with anything, so Ozpin just continued.

"I see..."

"..."

"How old are you again?"

"Seventeen..." - There really wasn't any point in lying.

"Well that's just the worst possible answer... Means I can't really let you go and leave you alone, and also that dropping you off at an orphanage is rather pointless..."

_'Orphanage? Really?'_

"Do you understand the situation we're in?"

"I think I do..."

Ozpin took yet another sip of his coffee, finally finishing it. He put the mug down, and started staring right into Jay's eyes.

"So... What are you gonna do with me?" - Jay asked, wanting to find out if he should start shooting already.

Ozpin stared at him for a few seconds after which he looked down and sighed.

"Well... Since I already started... _playing favorites_... with miss Ruby I suppose it would be only fair to do the same with you... The question is, can I trust you? For all I know you could be some psychopathic killer. No offense."

"...None taken..."

"So... Is there any way you could prove yourself to be trustworthy?"

Jay raised his eyebrow: "Is there any way YOU could prove yourself to be?"

"... Fair enough, I have to say."

"Pfft."

Ozpin, however, smirked and said with disappointed tone:

"Well too bad, looks like I'll just have to send you to jail..."

"WHAT!?"

"What? If you don't want to trust me that's the only option I have..."

_'Motherfucker!... Is it time to shoot yet? ... No, I need to know what could he possibly offer me...'_ \- The conversation actually opened Jacob's eyes, now he understood just how shitty is his current situation. No food, no shelter, no money. He needs to take any opportunities he can.

"Let's say... I will give you my trust, and do everything I can to gain yours... What could you offer me?"

"Heh... What could I offer you?" - Ozpin smirked - "Shelter, food, clean clothes and on top of all of that, a proper education."

Jay widened his eyes. _'Does he mean what I think he means?'_

"I will allow you to attend to Beacon." - Ozpin confirmed his thoughts.

"Heh...heh...HAH... HAHHAHAHA" - Jacob laughed. - "I... I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Nope."

_'Honestly, whatever, just fuck my shit up.'_

"Okay then, who has to die for me to gain your trust?"

Ozpin's only response was a chuckle, the man was rather oblivious to the fact that it wasn't a joke, but a serious question.

"No one. In the most literal way possible. You can't kill ANYONE... unless in self-defense, of course."

"... You mean just like earlier today?"

Ozpin's smile disappeared as he said:

"... Can impaling two people on the same blade be classified as 'self-defense'?"

Another tongue click.

"Heh, follow me. There's something we need to take care of before anything else."

"And what's that?"

"Getting you some new clothes." - Ozpin answered while pointing at his still messed up clothing.

They together approached to the door, with Ozpin opening them and keeping them open for him. While Jacob was wordlessly walking past him Ozpin gently grabbed his arm and said:

"Listen... I can only imagine how harsh you had it so far, but I can promise you that I can help you if you will simply let me."

Jacob lowered his face, letting his hair cover his eyes. He also smiled, exposing his rather sharp teeth.

"Yeah, right..." - he said and kept walking.

...

_"That's what they all_ _say._" - Jay added while whispering.

* * *

Jay looked at himself in the mirror.

Ozpin took him to the closest clothes' shop and gave him a limit of 200 lien, but since he wasn't particularly picky he managed to keep it just under 150. How much would that be in dollars was a mystery to him. Anyway, here's the full list of clothes he got himself.

\- three plain t-shirts, white, black and green.

\- a light gray hoodie with a zipper

\- a pair of jeans

\- a pair of camo shorts

\- a couple of pairs of pants and socks

\- cheap black trainers

Nothing particularly combat-suited, but it should be good enough for now.

Right now he was wearing the black t-shirt, the hoodie and the jeans, with the rest being inside a plastic bag.

Ozpin paid for everything and together they left the shop. It was night. In fact, the shop was just about to be closed, but by a miracle they managed to come just in time.

As for his previous clothes... as much as he didn't care about the makeshift shirt and pants he will miss his cloak. Let's just say repairing it would be more expensive than getting himself a new one. And he did see a cool looking black-red one in the shop. The only problem being its 4000 lien price tag. Jacob promised himself he will get it someday.

Anyway, he quietly followed Ozpin to his rather boring-looking car, and sat in the back.

"Where are we going now?" - he asked.

"I need to get back to Beacon, and since you will live there for quite some time I think, I guess you could say... we're going home."

Jay rested his head on the seat and closed his eyes with a soft smile on his face. After waking up on a different planet, fighting with three werewolf-like creatures, climbing a giant wall, robbing a hot dog stall, killing a couple of bandits, that weird magic duel he witnessed, having to constantly come up with lies to appear normal and his rather exhausting talk with Ozpin he was simply... _tired._

He yawned, and allowed his sleepiness to take over.

_"...Home..."_

* * *

The boy felt someone shake him by the shoulder, which soon was followed by those words:

"Wake up, kid." - the deep and rough voice woke him up. He opened his eyes, just to be met with a face of a young man who appeared to be in his late twenties, with black, messed up hair, a black beard, blue eyes and a couple of scars on his face. The only thing behind that man was an endless desert, nothing to be seen anywhere on the horizon.

The boy shook his head to make himself less sleepy, and quickly jumped out of the vehicle. It was a bandit technical with a big trailer attached to it, a sign of his scavenger lifestyle.

Looking again at the much taller man he noticed his... _attire._ Typical pandoran bandit fashion: Pants made out of rakk pelts, leather boots, without any sort of a shirt, but instead with a utility belt wrapped around his chest rambo-style, with a shield, grenade- and class- mods attached to it, and a psycho mask attached to his waist. But it wasn't any standard psycho mask. While most common ones were white with blue eyes this one was black, with red eyes. Although, since the man wasn't wearing it now it didn't really matter. He gestured his finger, giving the boy a sign to come closer. And so he did.

Once he got close enough the man pointed in some direction. Following his finger the boy looked over there, noticing a half-rotten bandit corpse crucified to a completely random wooden cross that was left close to the road.

"Whoah." - the kid exclaimed at the rather unnerving sight. He looked back at the man, who was now pointing a gun at him, making him freeze in fear for a split second, but the man quickly twisted it around in his hand, making the handle be pointed towards the boy.

"Take it."

And so he did. It was a standard, white-rarity Jakobs revolver, nothing particularly note-worthy.

"Now, shoot at that corpse, I want to see your aim."

"Umm..."

"What now?"

"I never shot before..."

"Hehe." - the man chuckled - _"Of fucking course..." - _he muttered with a tired tone, after which he sighed. - "Okay, see those three metal thingies on top of the gun?"

"...yeah?"

"Those are 'iron sights' you need to hold the gun in a way in which all three of them will be perfectly lined up."

"Like this?" - the boy asked after doing exactly what he's been told.

"More or less. Now, point the gun in a way that the corpse's head will be _just _above the inner one."

"You mean like that?"

"Yeah, but keep your elbows straightened."

The kid obeyed once again.

"Keep your grip tight, as if you wanted to strangle someone to death!"

The boy tightened his grip on the gun.

"Pull the trigger!"

**_*BANG*_**

The recoil caused the kid to almost drop the gun, and he got launched back a couple of meters. His arms hurt like hell, but he didn't fall over.

"Heh, a clean headshot! Not bad, kid!" - the praise caused the boy to smile in spite of the unbearable pain in his elbows and shoulders. - "How old are you, again?"

"..T-Ten.."

"Yeah, keep doing what I tell you and you'll live. You're not as weak as you think you are." - the man complemented - "Good job, Jacob."

"T-Thanks... Simon..."

* * *

**_To Be Continued_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Ozpin _**

**_Race: Human [Male]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant/Vale_**

**_Age: Unknown [~30]_**

**_Height: 1.98 m (6.6')_**

**_Description: The Head teacher of the Beacon Academy. For some reason wants to help. Hard to read. More information needs to be gathered._**

**_Threat: Unknown._**

**_Semblance: Unknown._**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People / Updates!]_**

**_Ruby Rose_**

**_Update: -No longer a Signal Academy student. Instead, she now attends to Beacon._**

* * *

**\||/**


	4. 3 - Setting Up

He opened his eyes.

He was still inside Ozpin's car, although he felt that they weren't moving anymore. After rubbing his eyes to make himself less sleepy he straightened up and looked around, noticing that they indeed stopped. Ozpin was just outside the car, looking at him through the glass. After their eyes met he gave the boy a sign to come out. And so he did.

"It's.. still night..." - Jacob noted.

"Truly you are observant, aren't you?" - Ozpin sarcastically answered.

After getting out of the car Jay looked around, noticing a giant building in front of them that looked like a castle. Since it still was very dark he couldn't see much details but he was sure he had never seen anything like this before. There was a singular cobblestone path leading to the 'castle''s gates, that was lighted up by two rows of lamps on each side.

"Beacon?" - Jay asked to make sure.

"Observant..." - Ozpin repeated. Jay could swear he saw a smirk on his face.

After that Ozpin started walking towards the gates, so Jay followed him. He couldn't see any other people than the two of them, and the only sound he could hear were their steps on the cobblestone path. Looking up to the sky he could see only never ending darkness, since the sky was completely covered with clouds. After getting a bit closer he could see a distorted shape of a high tower emerging from within the building, with some lights lit at the very top._ 'So that's why it's called Beacon...'_ \- he guessed. His gaze returned back to Ozpin, wondering what are his true intentions towards him. _'Surely he's not trying to help me for free... There must be something that I'm missing.'_

"Listen, Jacob." - Ozpin interrupted his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I've been wondering, what happened to your left arm?"

"I... don't know."

"... I understand."

_'Heh, he probably thinks it's too traumatic for me to talk about, but I really don't fucking know.'_ \- Jay thought while shaking his head with a smile on his face.

They continued walking in silence until they reached the gate. To Jay's positive surprise they opened automatically, letting them inside.

"Tell me, are you still hungry?"

"Yeah."

"Will you be okay until morning?"

"I'll manage."

"Good. Sorry if I sound weird, you see, I never took care of a teenager before..."

"Pfft."

"Alright then, follow me to your living quarters."

* * *

**_*CLICK* - _**the sound of a door's lock being opened.

Ozpin opened them wide, letting some light from the corridor get inside the completely dark room. Partially going inside he flipped the light switch, enlightening the room completely. It was surprisingly big, with four beds inside.

"... Why are there so many beds?"

"Ahh, yes, sorry about that. You see, those rooms are meant for teams of four we usually make out of our students."

"Teams?"

"Yes, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you will be left all alone."

"... Yeah, I'm used to it."

Ozpin gave him a concerned look.

"... Anyway, I'll have them carried out tomorrow, unless you want them to stay for some reason."

"Take them away."

"As you wish. Now, since it's literally 1 a.m. you can go to sleep if you want to. I wouldn't recommend sightseeing at night, it's quite easy to get lost that way."

"Uh-huh."

"Tomorrow... well, today, technically... you will have an entire day to get to know this place, since the school year starts... tomorrow... yeah."

"Heh, am I really going to go to an actual school?"

"Of course! Now, as much as I would love to talk with you a bit more I have tons of boring paper work to take care of. Make yourself at home."

"Sure..."

Ozpin nodded and left him alone. After his footsteps finally quieted down Jay jumped on top of one of the beds, still quite sleepy. But it wasn't time to sleep yet.

_'I still don't trust this guy, but if he wanted me dead, he would have already killed me in my sleep while I was in his car.'_

He shook his head to clear his mind. He took off his shoes and threw them inside the room's corner, after which he also took off everything else, leaving himself only in his pants.

_'This is my home now, right?'_

..._home..._

He looked around the room, here's what it looked like:

\- The bed he was laying on right now was directly in front of the doors, on the opposite side of the room. To his left and right there were two other beds, both in the room's corners. Between each pair there were bedside tables with two shelves each. Right above his bed there was a rather big window, currently locked and covered with a blind. Closer to the door on his right there was a big wardrobe, and the fourth bed right next to it. Finally, to his left there was a smaller room attached.

_'Probably Bathroom...' - _Jay thought and got up, wanting to inspect it. As much as it will probably sound silly, he literally has never seen a 'proper' bathroom before.

Taking a peek he saw a sink right in front of him, a mirror above it, a shower to his right, and a toilet to his left. And it didn't smell like shit inside? What a surprise!

...WAIT...

He slowly and suspiciously came closer to the toilet. Once he got close enough he opened it and looked inside. Crystal clear water being the only thing he saw. He deadpanned and turned back, part of him was expecting to find some ammunition inside. Force of Habitat.

Taking a last good look at the room he clicked his tongue and said:

"...Not bad..."

He sat on the one bed he claimed as his own, and started playing with his PDA. A big holographic screen appeared before his face, with various different options.

**_Quests:_**

**_Lost Traveller - [in progress]_**

_'Yeah, I still don't know shit about this planet, and I still need supplies...'_

He sighed, it's not like he can do anything about that right now, so it will have to wait.

Next tab:

**_Map:_**

The holographic screen displayed a big 3D map of Beacon, or at least of all the corridors he walked through while Ozpin lead him here.

Nothing too interesting other than that here.

Next:

**_Inventory:_**

He took a look at his possessions. The guns sorted themselves by their rarity, making it go _Glutton - Chimera - Quad, _from top to bottom.

A green rarity Tediore shield in his shield slot, with all the other slots for other parts of equipment being unpleasantly empty.

_'I remember having some basic stuff on me, wonder what happened to all of it?'_

In the bottom left corner of the screen there was his ammunition counter, showing off to him his five revolver rounds and disgusting zeros everywhere else.

_'I can only get that far with the Glutton alone, I need more ammunition, especially since Glutton's alternative forms also need some...'_

Finally, at the very bottom was his personal bank account, with zero dollars, zero eridium, zero moonstones, and 52 lien.

_'I also remember that I wasn't completely broke...' - _He grabbed his chin and started thinking, until he almost facepalmed when he realised.

_'Right... All of my stuff was inside my first PDA, which I most likely lost when I also lost my arm... The one I have right now is a different model...'_

He looked again at his left wrist. The PDA in question looked like a small tablet, very thin and even with a convex screen, attached to his metallic arm with two leather straps and some magnetic locks.

'_Funnily enough,__ it looks more fancy than my old one...'_

Anyway, his overall lack of firepower was rather unpleasant, but he'll manage for now.

Next:

**_Skills:_**

The holographic screen now displayed the Glutton's unlocked forms. Default and Beowolf, and nothing new. _'I wonder how to unlock more forms? It looked like it worked by itself the last time...'_

As he was just about to click to the next tab, he noticed something new. Looks like his 'Skills' tab has two sub-categories. One was marked with a picture of a flintlock pistol, most likely the Glutton itself, while the other icon looked like a star. He clicked on it, revealing three big, but grayed out skilltrees with a big 'Locked' sign covering them. With a raised eyebrow he clicked on the'Help' button in search for answers.

**_Skilltrees._**

**_Your PDA is equipped with DAHL experimental 'Soldier's Growth' module. It analyzes your fighting style and adapts to it. After the process of 'Synchronizing' is complete it will gift you with various different paths of improving your skills in form of easy-to-understand skilltrees! Keep gaining experience to gain skillpoints which can be used to unlock new 'skills' or to upgrade a 'skill' you already have!_**

Looking at the screen's bottom he noticed a partially filled bar, with a '2' on its left and a '3' on its right. Right below it there was a '334/1000 EXP' sign, and a red exclamation mark next to it. After instinctively clicking on it he was greeted by a message that read:

**_Display experience module on HUD?_**

**_[yes] [no]_**

**_..._**

**_[yes]_**

**_Loading Experience Level display module - ready._**

And so his HUD has been updated with a new fragment - the same bar that was below his skiltrees, now below his compass module.

_'Oh yeah, I heard that there are people with cool special abilities and classes. I wonder what my class will be once it synchronizes... probably something common like soldier or commando...'_

He yawned. He was still really sleepy. He turned off his PDA and the room's lights, and then fell on top of his bed with a loud 'thud'. It was really soft and comfortable. And just like that, he finally fell asleep.

* * *

He woke up the next day, to a sound of birds singing just outside his windows...

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

**_*BANG*_**

He successfully scared them away with a singular shot from his Glutton.

After dematerialising the gun he rubbed his eyes and went to the bathroom. He splashed his face with cold water and took a quick shower, since he smelled quite bad. Once he finished he put on his clothes, the same ones as the night before and left his room, leaving it open since he didn't have the keys.

Thanks to his minimap he was able to navigate his way towards the canteen that he with Ozpin walked past yesterday. His stomach still as empty as a couple of hours ago demanded food. He opened the double doors wide and went inside. The canteen was a big room with giant windows on one side, showing off the outside. There were many rows of tables with chairs next to them. And one of them was occupied by four people...

"Ahh! Jacob! You found the canteen! Come over here." - One of those people was Ozpin himself.

Rather skeptically he slowly approached. He was able to identify one of the other three as that witch from yesterday, the other two were strangers to him. They looked at him curiously, while the witch frowned.

"So you are Jacob Rook? Ozpin told us quite a lot about you." - One of the strangers started. He was an older man, probably even older than Ozpin. He had gray hair and a MASSIVE mustache, dressed in a red suit with yellow/gold fragments.

Jay's only response was to raise one of his eyebrows, point at the guy with his finger, and asking Ozpin this question:

"Who is that?"

The man in question gasped lightly and got confused. He also looked at Ozpin, who was once again drinking a coffee. Once he finished he cleared his throat and started talking:

"Jacob, these people are Beacon's staff, and your future teachers. You probably should show them at least a little bit of respect."

"Respect has to be gained." - He coldly replied, causing everyone except Ozpin to raise their eyebrows.

"...If that's what you think..." - Ozpin shrugged - "Anyway, I'd like to introduce you to them." - He gestured towards the witch lady next to him. - "This is Glynda Goodwitch, you've already met her yesterday. " - the witch nodded her head while still frowning.

* * *

**_Glynda Goodwitch_**

* * *

**_AKA the Witch Bitch_**

* * *

"She specializes in aura and semblance control, she could teach you a lot if you'll only listen."

_'Aura? Semblance? The way he said those sounds like it's common knowledge... I should check what those things are later...'_

"Now, this fine man right here is Peter Port" - The mustached man stood up and bowed his head - "My pleasure to meet you." - He said.

* * *

**_Peter Port_**

* * *

**_Definitely not a molester..._**

* * *

"Y-Yeah..." - Jay hesitantly replied.

"I specialize in the Grimm Creatures themselves, if you'll ever have questions about them, you can come to me!" - The man said.

_'Grimm? As in, those werewolves? Is there more types of them out there?... Heh, this guy can actually be useful.'_

"Finally..." - Ozpin continued - "This is Bartholomew Oobleck" - he said while pointing at the last person, a man who was probably slightly younger than Ozpin himself, who had messed up green hair and brown eyes covered with (this time big enough) glasses. He was wearing a shirt and a yellow tie. - "He specializes in Remnant's history."

"Greetings." - the man quickly replied.

* * *

**_Bartholomew Oobleck_**

* * *

**_Overdosed on caffeine 24/7_**

* * *

_'Remnant? Is that this planet's name?'_

**_*GROOWL*_**

"Ah, right, forgive me." - Ozpin apologized. - "Come sit here, your food is prepared, right here." - He gestured towards the only empty spot next to their table.

Without any words, and still looking suspiciously at everyone, Jay slowly approached, sat next to them, and looked at his breakfast.

Eggs, Bacon and white bread.

...So... simple, unoriginal... yet... It felt like such a delicacy to him...

He started zealously eating, causing Ozpin to smile, confusing Port even more, making Oobleck raise his eyebrows, and making Witch Bitch widen her eyes.

_'It's... so... fucking... TASTY...'_

He finished in a matter of seconds. Seeing this Ozpin passed him a cup with some warm drink in it. Jacob violently grabbed it, almost spilling it, and examined it.

_'...Tea... Motherfucking Tea...'_

Even though it was still quite warm, he drank it all in a couple of gulps. One does not realize just how hungry he is until he finally gets to eat something.

"So... Was it good?" - Smiling Ozpin asked.

"Y... Yeah..." - Jay answered with lowered head.

_'I see... he wants to make me feel indebted to him...'_

"Anyway..." - Jacob continued - "What do I have to do today?"

"Today?" - Ozpin thought for a while - "...Today, nothing, everything starts tomorrow." - He said, but then the Witch Bitch stroke him with her elbow and frowned at him. Ozpin looked at her for a while, until he sighed in defeat.

"Well, there is one thing..." - he said.

_'Hahah... Of fucking course...' - _Jay chuckled silently.

"You see... We always put our students through a sort of... _initiation_..." - he started

_'I don't like where this is going...'_

"What _initiation_?"

"Oh, you know, a test to see what they are made of."

"...So you'll want to check if I'm strong enough?"

"Well, yes, in a way, but I assure you there is much more in it that that."

"Uh-huh, yeah, of course." - Jay answered sarcastically

**_*SIGH*_**

"Alright, who has to die?" - Jay answered.

The 'teachers' looked at each other, giving confused looks.

"Jacob. We've talked about this." - Ozpin answered with calm voice.

"Oh, right, yeah." - he said while rolling his eyes. - "So what do I have to do?"

"Grimm hunting!" - Port enthusiastically answered.

"You mean those werewolves?"

"First of all _Beowolves. _Second, yes, and many more on top of that!"

"Alright, how many and where?"

"There is no specific amount you have to slay, as for location, you will be send to the Emerald Forest, which is where we do our initiations normally." - This time Ozpin answered.

"So what? Is that place infested with them or something? One would think your students would already wipe them all out at this point." - Jacob noted.

"That would be truth if we were talking about regular animals, but keep in mind those are Grimm!" - Port informed.

_'Once again, the way he said it makes it sound like its common knowledge here. So Grimm are in some way immune to getting wiped out. Also, if I understand correctly, there is more types of them out there than just the werewolves.'_

"...Okay, so when do we start?"

"Well, we can start any time you want, to be honest." - Ozpin replied.

"Wait, so all I have to do is to kill a bunch of those _'Grimm'_ and I'm good? What is this, a test of strength?"

"Although it may seem like it I assure you there is much more to it than just seeing one's combat powers."

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that." - Jacob scoffed - "Anyway, how about in a few hours? I need to do something now."

"And what is that?"

_"...Sightseeing._" - Jay answered, and left the room afterwards.

* * *

He spent around an hour walking around Beacon, so that his minimap will fully register it. Out of all the places he saw only two caught his interest.

Arena.

A giant hall with tribunes and an elevated place to fight. There were many lamps pointed at the scene and some big screens hanging over it.

_'Wonder if I'll get to fight here?'_

Having that out of the way, it's time for the actually important stuff. So he went to the one room which seemed to be the best for the task which was getting information.

The Library.

There was nobody in the room itself, but it was filled with many different bookshelves and some desks with chairs next to them. Also, there even were some computers.

_'Aw, man, thank god. Reading is for nerds.'_

And so he sat in front of one of these computers and turned it on. The process of it booting up was waay too long for his liking. Once it opened up he was greeted by a multitude of icons all over the desktop, which made him seriously cringe. After a few minutes of searching he found the one that activated an internet browser.

_'Alright, what should I find first? ... The planet I'm on.'_

And so he literally typed in 'The planet we're on' and pressed ENTER.

...

...

...

_'...Why is this taking so damn long!?'_

After more than 10 seconds of waiting he just couldn't handle it anymore.

_'It's pointless, I have to do it the cooler way.'_

What was the 'cooler way'?

It consisted of him connecting his PDA to the computer and letting it scan it. After a few SECONDS he pretty much downloaded the ENTIRE computer programming, with his PDA being able to analize it and gain all of its functions. With a satisfied smirk on his face he looked at his PDA. It still didn't get any EchoNet signal, but instead now it was able to get this world's equivalent of it. He quickly boot up the browser and typed in the same thing. He got the results this time significantly faster. He clicked on the very first link.

**_Remnant - the planet we live on, and the only planet known so far to have life on it._**

What he read caused him to widen his eyes and grab his head in surprise. Suddenly he started feeling dizzy. He supported himself on the desk, and started taking deep breaths.

_'...No...'_

He quickly started reading more.

**_Remnant's geography - _**blah blah blah.

**_Remnant's History - _**blah blah blah.

**_History of Life - _**yeah, yeah, cool, whatever.

**_Social Geography - _**... wait, only 2 billion people? That's very little...

'_Ahh! That's pointless! I have to search somewhere else!'_

And so he typed in 'Interplanetary means of transport'

**_\- Remnant currently has no possibility of space travel, and any interplanetary means of transport are a complete fiction. This is caused mainly because of the fact that Dust - Remnant's main energy source - loses its energizing properties outside of Remnant's atmosphere._**

Jacob blinked a couple of times and kept staring at the article for a couple of minutes, rereading it tens of times.

_'...No... No... NO!'_

He kept searching for more things, like 'Different planets' , 'Discovered Galaxies' and many more, but he didn't find anything that would satisfy him.

He sat on the chair and grabbed his head.

"Just... What is all of this!? How did I even end up on this planet!?"

He kept sitting, speechless for a very long time, thinking what to do now.

_'It's... not all over yet... surely I can get back the same way I got here... Just... how did I get here, again?'_

No use in overthinking this, the best thing he can do is to stay alive and get stronger.

He sighed and started searching for more information.

**_Dust:_**

**_\- the main source of energy on Remnant. Its physical properties make it incredibly useful for a variety of purposes, particularly in vehicles and weapons_**

**_-Dust is known as a naturally occurring, crystallized energy propellant triggered by the Aura of Humans and Faunus. _**

-**_For unknown reasons, Dust does not function outside of the atmosphere of Remnant, precluding the possibility of space flight._**

**_-Dust can be found in four basic types, red, blue, yellow and green. These four types can be combined both artificially and naturally to form other types of Dust, each with their own unique properties._**

_'Ahh, yes, enslaved elements... Anyway, what's 'Aura' and 'Faunus'?'_

**_Aura:_**

**_-it's the manifestation of one's soul, and can be used for a wide range of abilities. The specific abilities and their strengths differ from individual to individual and are dependent on a number of factors, such as experience, training, and innate skill._**

_'Ohh, so that's what that 'magic' was! If I understand correctly this could be some natural radiation that people on this planet emanate. After all, it is possible that we're completely different species even though we look similar.'_

**_Faunus:_**

**_..._**

...and here's when Jay completely lost it.

Once the page loaded he was greeted by many different photos of people with animal traits, such as cat ears, dog ears, bunny ears, sheep horns etc. Other that that they looked perfectly human.

_'...No... Fucking... Way...'_

He stared at the photos for a solid couple of minutes in disbelief. After reading the article he learned that those 'faunus' are in fact real, and are one of the two intelligent races on this Planet.

...

_'...Wait... If it means what I think it means... it means... CAT GIRLS ARE REAL HERE!'_ \- Jay thought, thinking about some hentai mangas he looted from a dead guy back in the day when he was still fifteen.

Aw hell yeah, man, let the pussy hunting begin!

Anyway, before that there's still a couple of things to learn.

**_Semblance:_**

**_-While Aura seems to posses a stock of set effects for every person, Semblances are those abilities that are unique and individualized._**

_'Ohh, so in Ruby's case it's her ridiculous speed, and that Witch Bitch has her magic? Cool, wonder if I could learn it? Probably not, seeing as I'm not from this planet.'_

Finally, there was only one thing left he wanted to learn right now.

Geography. Or, to be more precise, what countries are on this planet.

He didn't go into the details, just the most basic stuff.

Just as he thought, the country he was in right now was called 'Vale', and other that it there were only three others. 'Vacuo' in the west , 'Mistral' in the east, and...

...Atlas...

_'...Nah, it must be just a coincidence...' - _he thought, part of him wanting to think that it was 'his' Atlas, which would mean a possibility of leaving this planet.

A quick research about this country only confirmed his doubts. It was not the Atlas he knew. It was however, the most technologically advanced country in here, so if he wants any chance to get back to Pandora he should start searching there.

As he was thinking of any possibilities of doing so he realized just how lucky he was when he met Ozpin. Stranded on a technologically inferior planet, without food nor ammunition. And Ozpin gave him shelter, food, clothes, and even allowed him to go to his school. (the last one was kinda 'meh'). All of this sounded just perfect.

...Too perfect...

_'What could he possibly want from me? It seemed like he thinks I'm a general orphan living on the streets, yet for some reason he wants to gain my trust and make me feel indebted to him. I refuse to believe he's doing all of this purely for good intentions. I must be missing something...'_

He looked at the clock, noticing that the time of his 'initiation' was getting close. He sighed and left the classroom.

He learned so much, yet he still felt as if he knew nothing.

* * *

"So how was the sightseeing?" - Ozpin asked.

Jacob managed to find his office, which was located on the very top of the main tower. It really felt as if he entered inside a giant clock, because there were giant cogs everywhere just under the transparent floor.

"...Good enough..." - weirded out Jacob said.

"You found anything that caught your interest."

"Yeah, quite a lot of things actually..."

"Are you ready for your initiation?"

"...Well, I do need some ammunition, since I'm almost dry."

"Almost dry you say?"

"Yeah, I wasted most of my ammo on some beowolves I fought yesterday."

"Ahh, yes, Ruby did say something about that..."

"So... Will you give me some or do I have to fight bare handed?"

"...As much as I'd like to see that I see no reason why I should let you go to a grimm-infested forest without any weapons. What type of ammunition do you need exactly?"

" .45, .357 magnum and some 12th gauge shotgun shells."

"Hmm... I see what I can do. Though I don't know we have those types of ammo in here. How much do you need exactly?"

"All of it." - The quick response caused Ozpin to chuckle.

"Anything for my favorite crazed gunman." - he answered sarcastically.

"Pfft. Whatever you say." - amused Jay answered.

After that they together left the building and started walking towards a landing site of sorts.

"We're gonna fly?" - Jay asked.

"Yup."

Jacob looked at the machine that was waiting them for them. It looked extremely similar to than buzzard-like vehicle from yesterday.

"What's this machine?"

"This? It's a standard bullhead. You never saw one before?"

Jacob bit his tongue and mentally facepalmed.

_'Is this even worth playing pretend anymore?'_

After letting out a sigh he quietly followed the man to the flying machine and sat in the passenger cabin. Looking around he noticed that there already was someone sitting in the cockpit. Ozpin soon followed and also got inside, sitting next to Jacob. Jay gave him a questioning look and pointed at the pilot.

"That's mr. Sarius, our pilot." - he introduced.

* * *

**_Sarius_**

* * *

**_Pilot, and a pretty chill dude_**

* * *

"'Sup, kid?" - The pilot in question said after looking over his shoulder at them, raising his hand in a greeting matter. He was wearing a helmet, big goggles and a balaclava, which combined completely covered hi face. His voice was that of a young man.

"I'm sure you two could get along well." - Smiling Ozpin said.

"So where are we going? Emerald Forest?" - Sarius asked with a weird, almost german-like accent.

"Correct." - Ozpin answered.

"You know, kid, I remember when I had my initiation back in the day. Was really nervous, not gonna lie, but I can tell you it's not that bad. Taking care of grimm will become one of your daily tasks once you become a huntsman." - Sarius said, after which he started clicking some buttons, activating the machine.

Jay looked at Ozpin with a raised eyebrow.

"Sarius is a graduate of Beacon, and a Huntsman. He also has a pilot license so he often helps us out in situations like these."

"Oh yeah, speaking of, I have to say I was quite surprised when you asked me for this. Never would have imagined someone would get a private initiation."

"You see, Jacob is quite... special case, I guess. He also won't have a team of his own."

"Whoah! No team? That sucks, man! I'm still in touch with my ex-teammates, you sure he won't be lonely? Also, won't it be harder for him if he will have to do work that's meant for four people?"

Jacob could only roll his eyes at that.

"This is exactly why we're doing this, I want to see what is he truly made of."

"Haha! You make it sound like he is some elite individual!" - At that moment he looked over his shoulder at Jacob again, and asked: "Are you?"

"I... guess we'll see?" - Was Jacob's only answer.

"Heh, being humble is important, but there's nothing wrong with knowing your own worth. I'm sure if Ozpin himself adopted you there has to be something special in you!"

Jacob widened his eyes and said with confused voice:

"...Adopted?"

"Ahh, yes, sorry I haven't told you earlier, but to keep everything 'legal' I had to create you a fake ID and add it to the register. As for 'adoption'... well, it was literally the only option I had if I wanted to keep you in here. Otherwise I would be forced to leave you in some orphanage, which I'm sure you wouldn't want, would you?"

"...So what, do I have to call you 'dad' or something? Cause there's no fucking way I will..." - annoyed Jacob answered.

Ozpin and Sarius both chuckled.

"Sharp-tongued, eh? I like him already!" - the pilot laughed.

"No, of course not. All of this is only on paper for bureaucrats to worry about. As I told you before, the only thing I want from you in return for all the things I'm providing you with is for you to become a student at Beacon? Is it too much?"

Although both angered and flabbergasted Jacob had to agree. His only other option was living on the streets like some hobo.

Sarius finally started the engine, which was very loud. After a couple of seconds of awkwardly waiting there, the machine finally started ascending. Looking through the window Jacob was able to see the entirety of the Beacon complex, which was slowly becoming smaller and smaller. His gaze shifted towards Sarius, whose attention was completely occupied by piloting the machine. Finally, he looked at Ozpin, who only smiled in response. He still didn't trust him completely, but that will have to wait. Right now he needs to show how strong he is. Take all of the experience and lessons he had learned on Pandora and put them in good use. Show them that he isn't helpless. Show them that he isn't weak.

_Show them that he doesn't need anyone..._

* * *

**_To be continued_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / Planets]_**

**_Remnant._**

**_Galaxy: Unknown_**

**_Solar System: Unknown_**

**_Description: On a first glance climate and organisms seem extremely similar to those on Earth [Terra-1]. There are some unique specimens however, with Faunus and Grimm creatures being prime examples. Population of 2 billion people is surprisingly low, and there are also only four countries, or, to be more precise, kingdoms. More information needs to be gathered._**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Glynda Goodwitch_**

**_Race: Human [Female]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant/Vale_**

**_Age: Unknown [~30]_**

**_Height: 1.88 m (6.2')_**

**_Description: Teacher at Beacon Academy. Specializes in semblance control. Stern, bossy and bitchy. Her weapon of choice seems to be some sort of a wand with unknown capabilities. More information needs to be gathered._**

**_Threat: B+_**

**_Semblance: Exact effects unknown. Possibilities include: Telekinesis, weather manipulation, energy manipulation._**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Peter Port _**

**_Race: Human [Male]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant / Vale_**

**_Age: Unknown [~45]_**

**_Height: 1.73 m (5.8')_**

**_Description: Teacher at Beacon Academy. Specializes in Grimm creatures. Insufficient contact to determine personality or combat capabilities. More information needs to be gathered._**

**_Threat: B_**

**_Semblance: Unknown_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Bartholomew Oobleck_**

**_Race: Human [Male]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant / Vale_**

**_Age: Unknown [~30]_**

**_Height: 2 m (6'7'')_**

**_Description: Teacher at Beacon Academy. Specializes in Remnant's history. Seems to be extraordinarily energetic and hasty. Insufficient contact to determine personality or combat capabilities. More information needs to be gathered._**

**_Threat: B_**

**_Semblance: Unknown_**

* * *

_**[PDA Data / People]**_

_**Sarius**_

_**Race: Human [Male]**_

_**Nationality: Remnant / ?**_

_**Age: ~20**_

_**Height: 1.8 m (5' 11")**_

_**Description: Beacon's graduate, huntsman and a bullhead pilot. His accent is strangely reminiscent of that of a german-speaker. Seems to be easy-going and friendly at first. Unknown exact combat capabilities, but it's almost certain that he has experience.**_

_**Threat: B-**_

_**Semblance: Unknown.**_

* * *

**\||/**


	5. 4 - 1 - Hope and Violence

The tension in the bullhead was slowly building up as they were getting closer to their destination.

"Two minutes to target." - Sarius announced

"Alright then, I guess it's time for you to start getting ready." - Ozpin said.

"What do you mean?"

"Surely, you weren't going to fight in your casual clothes?"

Jacob looked down on his clothing, realising what he meant.

"Oh. Well, for all I care I could fight butt naked." - He said without any emotion.

"Hah! This guy is an absolute legend." - Sarius commented without anyone asking.

"...Anyway, do you have any combat suits or what?" - Jay asked.

"Sarius?" - Ozpin asked while looking in the direction of the pilot.

"There should be some back in there somewhere." - he shrugged.

After letting out a sigh Ozpin got up from his seat and went in the direction of some crates that were in the cabinet. He opened one up and, after looking at whatever was inside it, turned over his shoulder and gave Jacob a sign to come closer. The boy slowly approached with a raised eyebrow, as Ozpin pulled out a suit of sorts from the crate.

"That's a rather standard parachute suit, it's nothing spectacular but it will surely be better than your casual clothes."

"...Wait, am I actually gonna jump out?"

"Of course! Isn't it what boys your age are usually into?" - Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well... " - Jay found himself at a loss of words - "...Let's fucking go I guess..."

"Language." - Ozpin scolded him.

"Let's _fricking _go." - Jay said with a derisive grin.

"Acceptable I guess, anyway, is it time to go yet, Sarius."

"One minute to target."

"Well then, let me remind you of your goal then." - Ozpin said after turning back to Jacob.

"Slaughter as many grimm as I can." - Jay boldly said.

Ozpin gave him a tired look.

"Well, yes, but actually no. You will be deployed in the middle of the emerald forest and your task is to simply made it out of there alive. This should help you out quite a bit..." - He reached for something in his pocket, which looked like a piece of paper, and gave it to Jacob. It looked like a map, and Jay figured out it was of this forest. He took it and put it in his jeans' pocket. After that Ozpin continued: "While I admit I do want to see your fighting style you don't have to go out of your way trying to find more and more of them to fight. Speaking of, is the ammunition I gave you the type that you wanted?"

"Ah, right, I almost forgot." - Jay said as he digistructed all of his guns and started loading them with the ammunition he got from Ozpin earlier, that was also added to his inventory space.

Upon seeing the guns materialise themselves from seemingly nothing, Ozpin couldn't help but widen his eyes at the rather unusual happening.

"What is this?"

Jay froze in place, a wide and demonic smile and a frown on his face.

_'Ahh shit, right. I'm a fucking idiot.'_

To give away a potential trump card like that. He almost wanted to laugh.

"Is that... your semblance?"

_'Semblance? AH, RIGHT! 'Magical' powers unique to a given person. Ruby had her speed boost or something, With Bitch had her magic. I can still hide the fact that I'm from a different planet if I'll just play along.' - _he thought while retracting his weapons.

And there is is. The time he spent learning stuff earlier today has already proven worth it.

"Yeah..."

"So you can, like, store things... in an 'inventory' of sorts?"

"Yes."

"Hmmph. That has to be one of the most interesting semblances I've ever seen. Is there any limit to it?"

"Yes, the number and overall weight of all things I can 'store' is limited." - Jay vaguely responded, purposely hiding as much information as possible.

"Indeed, interesting..." - Ozpin said while watching him carefully. - "...Anyway, put the suit on and get ready, it's almost time to go."

Jay took off his hoodie and threw it on the seat he was sitting in earlier. He also took off his boots, and then started putting on the parachute suit. It was matt black, tight, but not quite skin-tight. On his chest there was a small panel with a couple of buttons and there was a thick layer of material connecting sleeves with sides of his torso and in between his legs.

"...Wait a minute, is that a wingsuit?"

"Hell yeah man! Do you even know how expensive it was!?" - enthusiastic Sarius shouted from the cockpit.

"Language." - Ozpin scolded him.

"Sorry." - He said, this time much more quietly.

"The wings are retractable, so you don't have to use them if you don't know how to." - Ozpin said, while clicking a button on the panel, causing the wings to quickly retract.

_'OOkaay, I have to give them credit. I didn't expect them to have such things here.'_

"This suit is an Atlas invention, and as Sarius just said, it was quite costly, so try not to destroy it." - Ozpin said after seeing his rather surprised face - "Anyway, take this." - he said while giving him a backpack of sorts, but after a closer inspection Jay realised it wasn't a backpack, but a parachute.

"Wow, I'm actually going to jump, aren't I?"

"What, first time?" - Ozpin said while smiling.

"Well, actually not."

"Oh, so you skydived before?" - Ozpin gave him a pair of googles.

Jay put them on and smiled.

_'Skydiving... I don't think being deployed as a parachute soldier counts as that...'_

"More or less..." - Jay said.

"So I don't have to tell you how to do it?" - Ozpin said while helping him properly attach the parachute to his back.

"No... Wait a minute." - Jay looked at him with a suspicious frown - "You wouldn't make me jump if it was my first time, right?"

"Target reached." - Sarius interrupted.

As he said those words the bullhead's doors started opening, but Jay continued to look at the older man.

"Of course..." - Ozpin said with an innocent smile. - "Anyway, it's time for you to go."

Jay's only response was to smile and shake his head a bit. He turned over his heels to face the opened doors. They were quite high, approximately 500 meters up in the sky, the wind was blowing like crazy, making his hair blow to the side, and as he was standing on the edge, he couldnt help but think:

_'Why the hell am I even doing this? I don't have to deal with that freak and his 'school' if I don't want to. My priority right now should be trying to find a way back to Pandora, not making some pest control quests for that Ozpin guy...'_

He looked over his shoulder to look at Ozpin, who only nodded as if to confirm that it's time to jump. He looked back at the outside.

_'...Well, I guess I don't really have a choice now, should have backed down earlier if I really wanted to... Besides...'_

_'I fucking LOVE skydiving!'_ \- he thought while making a big demonic grin on his face and frowning. He ran forwards, and jumped at the very edge of the bullhead's cabin. He made an unnecessary back flip and faced towards the ground. The wind was blowing in his face, and if not for his goggles he for sure wouldn't be able to keep his eyes open. He kept his limbs straightened and close to his body, to maximize his velocity. Looking down he could see the upper branches of all the trees, and some very thin spaces in between them. Looking more carefully he noticed a small clearing that he figured would be the best place to land on. So he activated his wing suit and started maneuvering in its direction...

Suddenly the image of the green forest was replaced with color of red. After a short moment of readjusting his eyesight to all the new details he started seeing it all. His smirk disappeared once he realized the red land was a certain place on Pandora he has once been it. There were people on the surface. Tons of people. And vehicles. You could see they were divided in two groups, standing opposite to each other. There were some yellow tracers flying at high speeds back and forth between them.

Gunshots.

It was a war zone, and he was falling right in the middle of it, at a very high speed.

Looking around he noticed he wasn't the only one who was falling. There were a lot of people who were also falling with him. Parachute troopers, and he was one of them.

He looked back at the ground, people were still fighting, and boy oh boy they didn't feel like stopping.

His HUD has already activated its combat mode, showing off thousands of red and green dots on the minimap - enemies and allies, and right below it, his main objective:

**_Red Liberation:_**

**_-Conquer the Vault exploration site [_** **_]_**

_[End of flashback]_

The red image of a war zone quickly changed back into the green picture of the Emerald Forest. This time, however, he was much closer to the ground than before the flashback thingy.

He wanted to gasp for air, which was a very bad idea, since he was falling at a high speed, he took much more air than he thought he would, causing him to start coughing uncontrollably. This resulted in him completely losing his balance and awareness of his surroundings.

**_*Cough* *Cough*_** "Oh... FUCK"**_ *Cough*_**

He opened his parachute to avoid crashing into the ground. He felt it open and quite strongly pull him upwards. Soon he started losing his velocity, and regaining his composure. He shook his head and coughed a couple of times more. After opening his now teary eyes he noticed he flew off his course and was now falling right into some trees.

"OH SHI-...!" - was all he managed to say before crashing into them. The impact wasn't very pleasant, there were tons of branches in his way that were breaking one by one, with some of them smacking him in the face or some other parts of his body. Following his primitive instincts he covered his crotch to protect his manliness from getting hurt in such a stupid way. This process of smashing through branches continued for a solid couple of seconds, even though it felt like half an hour for him. Once he finally made it through he felt himself falling faster for a few seconds, just about to crash into the ground, but something stopped him from doing so a couple of meters above it. His parachute got tangled up on the branches, resulting in him now dangling over the ground like an idiot.

**_*Blegh!* - _**he spitted out some small leaves that got inside his mouth.

His entire body was aching, but he's been through worse. Much worse. So he'll manage somehow.

"Holy... Shiiit..." - he said while grabbing his head.

Looking around he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, a forest like any other. No grimm in the vacinity, only some trees and bushes.

"So that's how we're gonna do it, eh?" - he said to noone in particular - "Flashback sequences to remember my past? Such a fucking cliche."

**_*Breath in*_**

**_*Breath out*_**

"Whatever..." - he quietly said while digistructing a weapon. A simple-looking red machete he looted from one of the mobsters he fought during the fight he got himself during his very first night on this alien planet. With a quick swing he cut all of the parachute strings that were holding him hostage. The moment he did so he started falling once again. Normally he should have been able to rotate himself around mid-air and land on his feet, but this time his body was still a bit numb after his failed attempt at 'skydiving', so instead he landed on his stupid face with an unpleasant 'THUD'.

"...Ouch..." - could be heard from him with his face still in the ground.

He punched the dirt with his bionic arm and slowly started to get up, which was much harder to do than he though it would. After a few seconds of struggling he got back up to his feet, although still a bit dizzy. Even his HUD glitched out for a second. Anyway, he cracked his neck and stretched his limbs, and finished with taking a deep breath.

_'...Wait, what direction were I even supposed to go?'_ \- he thought after realising he didn't remember that thing. - _'Oh, wait, the map, right.'_

He took off his goggles and hanged them on his neck. He reached for his pocket and pulled out the map he got from Ozpin. After quickly rotating it around to make its direction match with the one's on his compass, as well as comparing it with his minimap he was able to quickly find out where he is exactly, and where he should go.

"...North..." - he mentally noted.

He went inside his PDA's options and activated one of many special functions - map copying.

This quite obvious feature does exactly what is says - he used his PDA to scan the map he was holding and in a matter of seconds his minimap got updated with all of the information the map had. Of course, if he only walked around the forest by himself the minimap would update itself anyway, but this let him have all of the map instantly.

"Alright then." - he said after putting the physical map back into his pocket.

He picked up the machete that he dropped while falling from the tree and attached it to his waist. The suit he was now wearing had a waist with magnetic locks on its sides. He also digistructed both of his handguns and also attached them to his waist. Finally, he digistructed the Quad, and was carrying it in his arms, ready to fire.

"Let's go." - he said while cocking his shotgun.

* * *

"Holy shit he actually jumped out!" - Sarius said in disbelief.

"Language!" - Ozpin said in scolding tone.

"Ah, sorry, but I have to say, this kid's got guts."

"Oh, you wouldn't even imagine." - Ozpin said in a darker tone.

"W-What do you mean?" - confused Sarius asked.

"Believe it or not, this 'kid' is a murderer."

"What!?"

"Yes, you see, let me tell you the story how I met him."

* * *

Jacob was making his way towards north at a steady, not too slow, and not too fast pace while carefully looking around for any targets. Right now he was also thinking how should he 'present' himself to Ozpin. Should he kill a shit ton of Grimm to establish his dominance, or should he avoid as many as possible to keep low profile? The grimm aren't even the problem here, but what should he do to gain Ozpin's trust.

_'I don't think he is the type to abandon me if I turn out to be weak, but I also don't want them to think that, even if that could have its advantages. I also don't want them to think I'm crazy or something so I shouldn't get _too_ cruel when fighting these ugly bastards. As much as I'd enjoy tearing some to pieces with my bare hands looks like simply shooting them will have to do. Still a fun thing to do. AH! I'm overthinking this, aren't I? I'll just kill everything in my way!'_

As he finished that sentence in his mind, a couple of red dots appeared around him on the minimap. His neutral expression quickly changed to his maniacal smile and crazy eyes full of bloodlust as he raised his Quad shotgun.

"Come at me." - he quietly said..., no, he _ordered_.

* * *

"Have you heard about the massacre at "From Dust till Dawn"?"

"Why, yes, I've seen something in the news, what does that have to do with Jacob?"

"He was there."

"Wait, he was there when the mafia attacked?"

"Yes, and believe it or not, all the dead people that were found there was _his_ doing."

"Damn... But wait a minute, weren't the only dead people there recognized as the mobsters themselves? The news said there weren't any civilian casualties."

"Yes, that is indeed correct."

"So it was only self-defense, right?"

"That is what I thought at first too, but that's where the things start to get truly interesting..."

* * *

**_*BANG*_**

"WHY...!"

**_*BANG*_**

"...WON'T YOU...!"

**_*BANG*_**

"...DIE!?"

_***BANG*BANG*BANG* ***click*click*click*_

Having emptied Chimera's entire cylinder right into a beowolf which was still writhing on the ground with black blood all around it, and with several elemental effects still damaging it Jacob couldn't help but get frustrated. The very first grimm he killed there went down much more easily, after all, they all got one-shotted by him, but for some reason right now they all got much more tougher. Maybe the three he fought first were sick or something, maybe the ones in this forest were a special sub-species or something, who fucking knows.

"AGHH! Just go to hell!" - he said while rushing towards the wounded beowolf with intent to finish it off with his machete. Once he got close enough he started mindlessly stabbing it wherever he could, causing its black blood to splatter all over his face and suit. The crippled wolf couldn't do much more than just take it and whail in pain, as its limbs have already been severed.

After something that felt like fifteen stabs the creature finally died, and turned into dust that flew away with the wind.

Jacob, who was completely covered in black blood was panting heavily. After he finally came back to his senses he violently grabbed his Chimera and unloaded the now empty cartridge cases.

"That ammo! It has to be it! Fucker gave me some peashooters!" - he exclaimed with a frown.

He opened his Inventory and looked at the ammuntition section. He still had 42 revolver rounds, 90 pistol slugs and 40 shotgun shells, but there were small exclamation marks next to them. After clicking on one of them, this message appeared:

**_Error #14_**

**_\- caliber compatible, unknown ammo type_**

**_\- weapon will work, but possibly _****_with efficiency altered in an unknown way._**

His frown slowly disappeared as he read it a few times over. Suddenly, his eyes widened when he realised.

_'Dust! Those are dust rounds he gave me! I read about it in the magazine, but I didn't know they would be so much weaker than gunpowder ones!'_ \- he bitterly stated.

His thoughts were interrupted by another red dot appearing on his minimap. He also started hearing the sound of something big closing in on him, crashing all the bushes in its way. He slowly faced towards it and exchanged his Chimera for the Glutton in its default form, which was his strongest weapon right now. He tightened his grip on the machete in his right hand and bended his knees a bit in case he had to quickly jump away. The rather loud footsteps were getting closer and closer, until finally...

**_*ROOOAARGHH!*_**

A big quadpedal creature jumped out of the bushes and roared menacingly, the roar's force was actually strong enough to create a weak blow that made Jay's hair blow, and his ears to ring a bit.

"... You're... a _bear_, aren't you? Never seen one before but I've read about your kind." - he said, after which he started examining the creature. It had pitch-black fur and the same bone-like growths and a skull on its head as the beowolves he'd killed a minute ago - "And you're grimm on top of that, eh? So there truly are more types of them than just the wolves, right?"

Bear's only response was to stand on its rear legs and roar at him once again.

**_*ROOOAARGHH!*_**

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you're big and scary and shit... Sorry, man, but you're gonna be my test dummy right now." - Jay informed the mindless creature.

There was still one thing he was yet to learn about his Glutton gun.

_Just how strong is a fully charged shot?_

With this thought in mind Jay grabbed said gun and started charging it up. The bear, however, seemed to sense the incoming trouble, and decided to charge at him, not wanting to give him any chance.

Jacob widened his eyes at the sight of the Grimm Bear's unexpectedly high speed.

_'So fast! I thought that since you're big and fat you'll be slow, but I was wrong! Oh yeah! There was something about it in that one book! Bears can run with like 40 km/h ! (~25 mph)'_

If it was any ordinary person from around here they would surely get mauled, but not Jay, on Pandora he faced much deadlier creatures almost every single day, and in greater numbers too! There's no way he's dying to something as trivial as some stupid bear! He was already used to big animals charging on him, and he more or less knew how to deal with them.

At the very last second he jumped to the side, not as far as he could, but instead just barely enough to not get hit by the charging beast. He slashed his machete horizontally while doing so. Even though he didn't put that much force into that swing, the bear's momentum by itself was enough for the blade to deal considerable damage and open up a huge horizontal wound on the bear's side. Lots of black blood came out and stained the green grass on the ground, the bear roared once again, but this time in pain rather than to scare anyone away.

Jacob looked at the damage he caused, and then at his machete, covered in black blood. He hissed and frowned.

_'Damn it, I think I overdid it, I was supposed to test out a fully charged Glutton shot, after all!'_ \- he thought. By the way, he was holding down Glutton's trigger in his other hand all along, and was still holding it even at that moment. He quickly looked at the gun, noticing it wasn't even half-way done charging yet. (He had a proper bar on his HUD, but it could also be seen on the gun itself.) _\- 'Damn it takes long to charge it fully...'_

The bear, on the other hand...

**_*ROOOAARGHH!*_**

With a raised eyebrow Jay looked in its direction, noticing that it once again was standing on two legs, staring at him.

"Oi! You're still alive." - he happily noted.

* * *

"What do you mean: 'There wasn't any information about him'?"

"It means just that: Absolutely nothing. There's no 'Jacob Rook' in Vale's register, no one with a photo that looks like him, he isn't registered at any school or orphanage, there even isn't any trace of him on any social media platforms."

"Ohh, I see... but doesn't that mean he can be simply from some other kingdom?"

"I also thought about that, and checked as much as I could, and I can with confidence say that he's not from Atlas, and that most likely he also isn't from Vacuo or Mistral."

"Ah, right, you are friends with gen. Ironwood, after all, but how did you check for the other two countries?"

"Trust me, I have my ways. Anyway, all of this makes it seem like he just suddenly appeared out of nowhere in this kingdom yesterday."

"Damn. And the first thing he did was to rob a hot dog stall. HAH!" - Sarius laughed, causing Ozpin to chuckle a bit.

"From the very little information that I've managed to gather I can tell that his parents are either dead, or he wants to have absolutely nothing to do with them."

"Domestic abuse?" - Sarius asked, his tone much more serious than a minute ago.

"Possible. Now, tell me, which would be worse?"

"Hmm... Honestly, probably the former to me, but I still wouldn't be a fan."

"There's truly no correct answer to that question, is there? Anyway, I also deducted that he's used to committing crimes."

"Yes, seems pretty obvious that he'd have to resort to such things... "

"...That also includes killing people..."

"What!? You think he killed people even before that dust shop incident?"

"...Oh, I'm **sure** of it..."

...

"...Damn..." - Sarius said after a long while of silence - "Though, I'm not sure how _I_ would turn out if I didn't have a family or friends to rely on, so I can't really judge him I guess."

A soft smile appeared on Ozpin's face - "I knew you'd say something like this, it's the only reason why I'm even telling you these things in the first place."

"What!? Oh cmooon, I thought it was because I'm your favorite bullhead pilot!" - Sarius jokingly whined to lift up the mood.

"Heh, you're my _only_ bullhead pilot."

"Pffft..." - Sarius smiled under his balaclava - "...So, if he's not from any kingdom, then just where is he from?"

"I think... That's he's from _outside_ of any kingdom..."

Another short while of silence occured while Sarius was processing everything.

"...Well, I have to admit, that does sound very likely... It truly explains everything, doesn't it?"

"Yes, exactly..."

"But... Why would he even come here? If he lived for seventeen years there he should be able to survive out there, shouldn't he?"

"Yes, I've been thinking about this, and my theory is that recently he lost someone who protected him out there, and being left all alone he had no choice but to search for salvation here..."

"Well... It would fit with the whole 'lost his parents' thingy..."

"So, as you can see, in summary we got ourselves quite a tragic figure here... well, _presumably_, at least."

"...Aaand you took him under his wings to make a Huntsman out of him?"

"What he will become in the future is entirely up to him to decide, I just want to give him a chance to live like a normal person."

"Hmm... Yeah, seems just like the thing the great mr. Ozpin would do."

"Heh... If you say so..."

* * *

A giant black bear standing on its fours, looking up at the rather small dark figure that jumped straight at it, a red blade in its hand, a glowing pistol in the other.

Jay jumped as high as he could, barely positioning himself at the same level as bear's head, he raised his machete and took a swing with all of his strength, aimed straight at the creature's head. However, the bear did something that Jay did not expect. Rather than trying to dodge or back away, it instead leaped _forward_, right at the blade, and _headbutted _it. Although some black blood came out, the beast's skull proved to be much harder than Jay expected it to be, resulting in Jay getting knocked back. Bear soon followed with a swing with its palm, and since Jay was still confused after the headbutt the hit actually connected, hitting him in his side.

Jay flew a couple of meters to the side, and rolled on the ground. The bear got him good. Thankfully he had his shield turned on, which absorbed most of the damage, but broke in the process. If not that shield he for sure would have all of his ribs broken, and maybe even a broken spine. But thanks to it he was more or less okay, although for a couple of seconds he struggled to breath properly.

"...Aww fuck..." - he managed to say, while still laying down, faced towards the ground.

Seeing its chance the bear started slowly approaching, ready to kill. Step by step it kept getting closer, while Jay was still on the ground. Once it got close enough it got up to its rear legs, and raised its palm with intent to finish him off, but that's when...

**_*BOOM!*_**

Jay quickly rolled on his back, exposed his fully charged Glutton, and released the trigger he held for so long. Next thing he saw was a strong flash of white, MASSIVE recoil in the hand he was holding it with, and a gunshot sound that sounded more like a thunderclap than a shot.

It took him a couple of seconds to recover from the flash and the loud bang, it was almost as if he just got flashbanged. Anyway, since he still hasn't been mauled yet he guessed it was safe to assume that the shot found its target. After slowly getting up and shaking his head he looked up in the direction that the bear used to be in, just to widen his eyes at what he saw.

The bear was still there. Well, more or less. It got launched a solid 5 meters (16.4 feet) backwards, and there was black blood everywhere around it, making a nice trail. After getting a little bit closer, still ready to react in case it got back up, Jay could see the damage done. One of its limbs, the upper left one, was gone. Destroyed. Blasted off. Obliterated. As if it never existed in the first place. The shot had enough power to also make a giant hole in creature's chest, effectively halving its diameter. Some black-reddish insides could be seen, with the giant wound's edges being so burned that they turned to charcoal. However, despite all of this, It was still alive, as indicated by its moving jaw, while the animal was struggling to take a breath.

"Now this is just animal abuse. Sorry, pal." - he said with a satisfied smirk. He almost wanted to laugh.

Looking at his wonder weapon Jay noticed that its usually silver gem changed it color to black, signifying that it's fully depleted. There was also an exclamation mark on his HUD, indicating the same thing. Since he depleted its energy completely, he will have to wait for it to fully recharge, which can take quite some time, meaning in case he will run into any other grimm he will have to resort to using those useless dust rounds. Combined with the fact that his shield was now broken made him quite vulnerable.

He sighed.

"Well, anyway..." - he said while pulling out his machete, with intent to finish off whatever was left of the once quite fearsome absolute unit of a bear. Slowly, step by step he approached, as the bear was still laying semi-consciously on the ground, with approximately a quarter of its body blasted off. Once he got close enough he raised his red blade, aiming at the creature's head, but that's when he was met by a yet another surprise...

As a last ditch-effort the bear gathered the remainings of its strength, desperate to survive no matter what, and with all of its leftover might it struck Jay in the side with its remaining palm.

Jay's eyes widened, and his pupils shrinked from the sudden impulse that he hadn't felt in quite a while.

Pain.

_Real _pain, not muffled by a shield or anything.

The strike's force was enough to send him flying once again, this time, however, he was stopped mid-air by a tree that was standing in his way.

**_"GAAGH!"_** \- Jacob exclaimed as he spitted blood out of his mouth. He fell down on the ground, right under the tree that he hit, faced towards the ground, and kept laying there for a few seconds. God damn it, it hurt so much. So much that his vision started getting blurry... and blurrier... and darker... until it became as dark as if it was night, and he wasn't able to see anything. His thoughts and panic started getting slower and calmer... He could feel himself slowly drifting away...

_'...Fuck, he got me good...'_

* * *

"GET UP!" - manly voice shouted at him.

His only response was to cry. Cry like a kid.

"Pfft. If you won't get up I'll leave you here."

"NO! ..._*HICC*_... PLEASE! ..._*HICC*_... DON'T!..._*HICC*"_

"If you can't handle something as trivial as a punch to the gut there's no way you'll survive out there alone. I'm just wasting my time with you."

"B-But..._*HICC*_... It... _*HICC*_ ... hurts..."

"Kid, pain is your ally, it reminds you that you are still alive. And as long as you're alive you have to keep fighting. You have to keep struggling. Even if the situation seems completely hopeless. Even if the pain seems unbearable. Even if you think that there's no point in keeping trying, you still have to get up, no matter what. Because as long as you're alive, you are INVINCIBLE! SO GET THE FUCK UP!"

"I... _*HICC*_ ... can't..."

...

...

...

"S-Simon...?"

...

"SIMON!"

...

"DON'T LEAVE ME!."

...

"PLEASE!"

...

_'He left me, didn't he? Of course he did, why would he waste his time with such a weakling? I'm just dead weight to him. Just how am I still alive on this planet? I should be dead...'_

...

_'Weak.'_

_..._

_'Useless.'_

_..._

_'I should be dead...'_

_..._

_'...Just like mom...'_

At the both sweet and bitter memory of his lost mother, the boy started feeling something. He started to cry. Much more than he was crying to this point.

_'...Mom...'_

_..._

_'...NO!...'_

_..._

_'I don't want to be weak!''_

_..._

_'I don't want to die!'_

_..._

_'I'll be strong!'_

_..._

_'I WILL NOT BE AS WEAK AS HER!'_

_..._

_'I don't want to live in fear. I want others to fear ME!'_

_..._

_'I'll grow strong!'_

_..._

_'I'll be THE STRONGEST!'_

With those words in his mind, the boy gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and punched the ground. He used that fist to support himself, and slowly, with a shaking body, got up to his knees. He stopped at that for a few seconds, catching a breath, after which he continued his struggle, until he finally...

...Got back up...

...

"See, kid, ain't that hard after all, eh?"

* * *

**_To be continued..._**

* * *

_**[PDA Data / Creatures]**_

_**Ursa Major**_

_**A grimm creature resembling Terra-1's bear. Massive and strong, but at the same time surprisingly speedy and agile. 'Major' variants are even bigger and stronger. Has sharp teeth and claws, and a strong jaw, but no supernatural abilities. A thick layer of fur makes most weapons less effective. Elemental weaponry or explosives are advised. Can be found in forests.**_

_**Threat: C+**_

* * *

**\||/**


	6. 4 - 2 - Strength and Weakness

**_*Thud* - _**he struck the ground with his fist, and then used it to support himself while getting up. Slowly, with a shaking body, every breath he took inflicted pain in his chest.

Once he finally got back to his feet he cracked his neck and took a deep breath in, causing even more pain for himself.

_'I got careless...'_

He used his organic hand to inspect the side of his torso that he had gotten hit in.

_'Broken ribs... but since I can stand my spine must be okay.'_

His thoughts were interrupted by some weird noises from his right. Looking over there he noticed the very being that gave him those wounds.

The bear was on its fours, with a quarter of its body still missing, and a pool of black blood all around it. The weird noises it was making were its last agony breaths. It had Jacob's machete indulged in its throat, and when it opened its mouth one could see the shiny blade there. Its remaining frontal limb started shaking, until finally the bear dropped to the ground, exhausted from the bloodloss.

With lowered head and eyes covered in the shadow of his hair he started slowly approaching.

"Not gonna lie, you almost got me..." - Jacob said with emotionless voice - "I guess I underestimated you, since your werewolf friends were so weak... But trust me, I learned my lesson... I won't go easy on anyone else on this planet..."

Why was he even talking to animals? He had a weird urge to explain everything what he does to others for some reason.

Anyway, he pulled out his Glutton and aimed at the creature's head. It looked up to him, making him raise one of his eyebrows when instead of the usual blood lust Grimm emanated he found something different inside them.

Despair.

"What's that? Ain't so tough anymore?" - he mocked with an evil smile and chuckled.

"Cya in hell."

**_*click*_**

"...eh?"

**_*click* *click*_**

He looked at his gun. It hadn't fully recharged yet.

His evil smile changed into a deadpan.

"...Well, that was anti climatic..."

**_*Grooowl*_**

"Oh, shut up..."

He pulled out his Chimera revolver and quickly shot the half-dead bear in between its eyes.

**_*BANG*_**

"There we go..."

Bear's head exploded into tiny pieces, and anything that was left of it got set ablaze after a small incendiary explosion.

Once the once fearsome bear finally died a couple of interesting things happened:

First, an announcement on his HUD:

**_Minimal level value reached._**

**_S.G.M. synchronized. _**

**_You have unspent skillpoints! (1)_**

But before he could do anything about it something else happened: The Bear's corpse turned into black dust that started flying away with the wind. However, it unexpectedly changed its direction, right towards him. He instinctively took a step back, but the dust quickly reached him, or, to be more precise it reached his left hand, in which he was still holding the discharged Glutton. The black dust has been absorbed by the gun's now black gem, and soon another announcement popped up:

**_Ursa Major [Grimm Series] - Glutton form unlocked._**

He activated the newly unlocked form and inspected it. It looked like a customized PKM machine gun (something much bigger than he expected). It had a big bayonet and a boxy barrel heat cover. Similary to the Beowolf form, this one was black in color, had white and red decals here and there, and on the magazine box there was a bear's palm print.

_'...Yup, it's a really cool fucking gun, I bet it's also the strongest one I have right now... Too fucking bad I don't have any ammo for it...'_ \- Jacob sadly thought. He felt like he just got cucked by destiny.

He transformed the gun into the Beowolf form, the only one that was still usable, and attached it to his waist.

He activated his PDA and showed his skilltrees, just for a tutorial of sorts to start playing.

_'S.G.M. stands for soldier's growth module... blah blah blah... kill things and complete quests to gain experience points... blah blah blah... Every time you level up you will get a 'skillpoint', use them to unlock new skills or upgrade ones you already have... blah blah blah... yeah, nothing new here...'_

Once he clicked the 'OK' button his skilltrees have been finally revealed.

* * *

**_Evolution Weaponized_**

**_It's in nature, son! Surpass your human body limits with the help of Eridian DNA contained inside your artificial arm. Become stronger, faster, smarter, let the Eridian DNA take over your body, humanity's overrated anyway!_**

* * *

**_Gluttony_**

**_What's better than a gun that grows stronger over time? A gun that grows stronger FASTER! Gain skills that will unlock more ways for your favorite gun to develop. Make your gun a One For All!_**

* * *

**_Demonic_**

**_You always felt it, didn't you? The feeling that one day something inside you will just break and you'll go berserk killing everything in your way? C'mon son, you're going to hell either way, so why not enjoy the ride? Throw away your humanity for the sake of POWER!_**

* * *

Jay read all of the descriptions and then looked at the very first skills available on each of the trees:

On Evolution:

Pumping Iron - Increases melee and unarmed damage

Glory Kill - Killing an enemy with melee or unarmed instantly replenishes a small portion of your health

For Gluttony:

Ammunition Series - Glutton can now absorb different ammunition types

Steady - Increases accuracy, recoil control and cooldown rate of Glutton's default form

And for Demonic:

Possession - **_[Action Skill]_** \- Greatly increase physical strength, speed and durability for a couple of minutes. Cannot use any weapons while under the effects. Can be activated only when at 30% of max health or lower, and/or while under mental trauma.

...

_'Oh, so the last one is like a berserk stance or something? I don't really think I need it as of yet...'_ \- he thought, not taking the whole 'possession' thingy too literally.

He sat down cross-legged and started thinking. Planning. Looking into the future, what will turn out to be the best skill point investment, as unless he somehow finds his way back to Pandora, or at least to any planet from his galaxy, he will not be able to 'respec' them.

**_*SIGH*_**

_'Well, it's pretty obvious I guess...'_ \- he thought while putting his only point into [Glory Kill]. He then once again checked his ribs, which were still hurting, and then at his health bar. Around 1/3rd was remaining. The bear got him _good._

He turned his screen off and got up. He checked the map, looked towards North, and, as if nothing ever happened, he continued his crusade.

* * *

Boarbatusks.

Arguably one of the weakest grimm out there, yet they can still pose serious threat to individuals that can't fight. However, anyone with at least average fighting skills should be able to hold their ground against them.

A singular specimen of them was just minding its own business somewhere in the depths of the Emerald Forest, where it felt relatively safe, when all out of sudden...

**_*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*_**

Three gunshots could be heard, and almost instantly the grimm felt pain in its side, from the three bullets that just pierced through its entire body, coming out of the other side.

The creature panicked, not even knowing from where have the shots come from, it jumped in place and started quickly looking around, when it noticed. A bipedal creature... a human! Rushing straight at it with a pistol in their hand, with smoking barrel, and a machete in the other.

Primal Instincts kick in.

_Fight or Flight._

_..._

_Fight!_

The Boarbatusk braced itself and jumped at the human with a warthog-like screech and intent to lacerate them with its tusks...

...But its eyes widened and the screech was cut off in surprise when the human extended their arm towards it and actuall _grabbed _it by the tusk and _stopped_ it mid-air.

_What?_

_..._

_Illogical. Humans aren't that strong. Wasn't his hand occupied by a weapon just a second ago?_

_..._

_Fear._

The Boarbatusk screeched again, this time in terror, as it has been lift up above the human's head level, and then rapidly pulled towards the ground with great force.

_Fight or Flight._

_..._

_Flight._

Despite its serious injuries the Boarbatusk did its best to get up and run away, but it once again has been stopped by the human's arm...

_...No..._

_...Not human..._

The... _creature's_ other hand raised, with a blade covered in black blood in it.

...

_...It killed lots of Grimm..._

The hand with the blade was launched towards it.

**_*SLASH*_**

The blade was indulged in Boarbatusk's back, making it release a yet another screech, this time a screech of pain.

But the monster wasn't done yet. He started pulling the tusk, with force greater and greater, until finally...

**_*CRACK*_**

It broke off.

The creature grabbed the tusk, rotated it 180 degrees in its hand, and send it towards its ex-owner.

The last image seen by the Boarbatusk's was the sight of its own tusk closing in on its own eye...

* * *

"There we go!" - happy Jacob quietly said after pulling out the tusk from the grimm warthog's eye.

He looked at his health bar, noticing how it slowly increased. He also felt the pain in his side lessen a bit, but that could be just placebo.

He gave a last look towards the warthog's corpse, before it turned into dust just like any other grimm before did. But before it could fly away with the wind he materialized his Glutton gun and let it absorb all of it.

**_Boarbatusk [Grimm Series] - Glutton form unlocked._**

\- an announcement popped up, just like he expected.

He instantly activated the new form to see what it looks like.

It was a shotgun, or, to be more precise, a double-barreled, over/under with a sawed-off barrel. It also had something that looked like an underslung buzzsaw. The gun itself was only around 30cm (11.8 inches), with the buzzsaw adding another 10 (3.9). It also had the usual black-white-red coloring with Boarbatusk's skulls painted on each side of the barrel.

Jacob pushed the release lever to the side, making the barrel break in two, revealing its two empty chambers. He loaded them with the dust buck shots he got from Ozpin and swung it upwards, causing the barrels to close up.

_'While it's probably weaker than my Quad, at least I have ammo for it...'_

And that's when he sensed some more animals approaching. One Boarbatusk more. The grimm screeched at him upon noticing his presence and did something rather unexpected...

...It jumped towards him, and then started rolling on the ground with surprising speed, like a fucking spiderant.

Without thinking too deeply about it Jay raised his newly acquired gun and fired.

**_*BANG*_**

Black blood spilled everywhere, and the grimm's momentum has been completely reverted, making it stop in place.

**_*BANG*_**

Another shot knocked it over on its back.

_'Two shots from a shotgun and still alive? Those dust rounds are fucking...'_

He pierced the Boarbatusk with his machete.

"USELESS!"

His health rose up once again after that melee kill. His shield also recharged a long time ago, making him regain his confidence. With the bear he just got unlucky, can't do anything about that.

Having that out of the way Jay proceeded with his ... mission?

Not even fifteen minutes later Jay was just walking down the forest's path when he encountered more grimm. A pack of five beowolves.

They started growling and running around him, surrounding him.

_'Ughh... This is starting to get boring...'_ \- he thought.

As the beowolves kept getting closer he took his time to plan out all of his next actions, how to kill them all in the most efficient way possible. A smirk appeared on his face once he finished.

With an intimidating bark one of the beowolves charged at him with exposed fangs and red flames in its eyes, others waiting to see what will happen.

Jacob raised his Chimera revolver and fired two shots in a quick succession.

**_*BANG* - _**Bullet hit the wolf in its shoulder, creating an electric burst that made the beowolf stop in place and howl in pain.

**_*BANG* - _**The second shot hit right in its opened mouth, causing a small incendiary explosion.

Dust round or not, this GOTTA hurt.

Jay followed with a third shot, for good measure.

**_*BANG* - _**It hit the wold in its knee, making a small, standard explosion that managed to blow the limb in two.

The legless wolf dropped to the ground, with fire burning in its pierced throat and with electricity sparking on the entirety of its wounded body. Jay dashed towards the animal and double tapped it with a quick strike with his machete, proccing [Glory Kill] once again.

Other grimm stared at the violent display and were growling at him, possibly trying to come up with a scheme of their own. They were making circles around Jacob, with him slowly turning around, ready to react to any of their movements. This tension continued for a couple of seconds, until finally...

**_*GROWL*_**

All the beowolves charged at him simultaneously, wanting to utilize their numeral advantage. His only reaction was to smile like a maniac and exchange his Chimera for the Glutton in the Beowolf form. He raised the gun and fired its special mode, the [Intimidating Howl]. The pistol launched something akin to a sound wave, while making a sound close to a beowolf's howl (well... _duh_). The wave quickly travelled and flew through all the charging beowolves, making them freeze in place.

With a wide smile that exposed all of his teeth, and crazy eyes he charged towards them with a speed rivaling a rabid animal, machete in his right hand, Glutton in his left one. He released a couple of shots from the pistol, bullets piercing through the Beowolves in the front and also hitting the ones in the back, dealing some rather small amounts of damage. And then, just two seconds later he was already right next to the one in the very front.

**_*SLASH!* -_** He beheaded it with one good swing.

Without stopping he continued charging, making his way to the second one,

**_*SLASH!* - _**He indulged the blade inside its shoulder.

**_*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*_** \- he continued by emptying Beowolf gun's magazine into the creature's face.

The two remaining ones finally 'unfreezed' from their fear effect and jumped at him simultaneously. He quickly turned to face them and with a quick flash of blue and white he materialized both of his shotguns.

**_*BOOM*_** \- Two shots let out at the same time knocked them back, the one Beowolf that was shot with the Quad got launched back significantly further than the one that got hit with the Boarbatusk gun, so Jay followed with a second shot from the latter gun, to distribute the damage more equally.

_'Both shotguns are empty, Beowolf pistol is empty, and Chimera has only two shots left...'_ \- Jay thought, he's been counting his shots all this time.

The two Beowolves stood back up, although they both were visibly heavily hurt. They exposed their teeth and started growling, once again circling around him, trying to surround him.

He recalled his shotguns and took his machete in both of his hands.

**_"COME AT ME FUCKERS!"_** \- he shouted at them.

As if they understood, both of them jumped at him from two different directions. Jay launched his blade at one of them, indulging it in its throat handle-deep, killing it instantly.

The other beowolf however had enough time to reach its target and jump right into Jacob with its claws. The wolf had enough momentum to launch them both a couple of meters forwards, and even roll on the ground. Once Jay regained his senses he was laying on the ground, pinned down by the monster that was on top of him, with its mouth opened right above his face. His machete was still inside the previous one's corpse, and he didn't have time to materialize his any of his guns, so he did the only thing he could. He blocked himself with his arms. Or, to be more specific, with his metallic one, which proved to be a good enough defense beforehand.

_'UGH! ... I'm getting a deja_ vu.' - he thought while thinking about his very first day on this planet.

The Beowolf on top of him kept getting more and more rabid, increasing its push force, snapping with its mouth, and digging its claws into his shoulders deep, making his crimson red blood pour out.

_'FUCK!... Did my shield break already again? UGH! Useless piece of shit tediore good-for-nothing half-priced shitty shield from a garage sale!'_

Jacob's vision started getting distorted, and corners of it red. He started seeing red.

The Grimm opened its mouth as wide as it could, and collected the remainings of its energy to finally bit into his throat, but its eyes widened when it noticed it couldn't close it.

Jacob grabbed both of its jaws with his hands, his metallic arm was holding the bottom jaw, preventing it from closing, while his organic one grabbed the upper one, getting pierced by some of the Beowolf's teeth. His hot blood started leaking down his wrist, but the beowolf only kept pushing stronger.

**_"ENOUGH!"_**\- he shouted and with all of his strength he rolled over, while pulling the beowolf by its jaws. He switched their positions, making it so that now he was pinning the beowolf down, and raised his bleeding fist.

**_*THUD* - _**a dull sound of his fist hitting the wolf's skull.

**_*THUD* - _**again

**_*THUD* - and again_**

Black blood started spurting everywhere and the beowolf was whimpering. Jay's face was covered in shadow, with only his crazy eyes with shrinked pupils being visible. He released Beowolf's jaw and before it could do anything he started rapidly punching it with both of his fists alternately.

**_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_****_*THUD*_**

**_Level up!_**

His punches only accelerated with time, more and more black blood appeared, staining him completely. Wolf's whines have stopped a long time ago, but he kept punching and punching, until it turned into dust under his continuous strikes. When the corpse was gone he just kept kneeling over nothing for a couple of seconds until he regained his composure. Breath in. Breath out, y'know. He looked at his hands, both of which were completely covered in a mix of black and red bloods. His right hand hurt a lot, left one not at all... He lowered his head and slowly got up to his feet. He looked around, and after not noticing any more enemies he picked up his dropped machete, went next to a tree, and sat under it. He took his time to reload all of his guns and let his shield recharge.

"Well..." - he whispered - "... that was... refreshing..."

**_Attention!_**

**_You have unspent skillpoints (1) !_**

_'Oh, right, almost forgot about that...' - _he thought while opening up his skilltrees and checking his options.

_'Should I upgrade [Glory Kill]? My health rose all the way up to 70% after all those melee kills, so I gain health faster than I lose it already, so I don't need to as of yet... [Pumping Iron]? A straight-forward strength up is always welcome... I don't want to get [Ammunition Series] for Glutton until I get my hands on some gunpowder ammo, cause dust rounds are pretty fucking useless... [Steady]?'_ \- He checked Glutton's default form, and saw that it was almost done recharging - _'Could be useful... But then again [Possession] seems like a good thing to carry me until I get gunpowder ammunition and more powerful weapons... Yeah, seems like a plan...'_

And so he put his point in [Possession,

**_Updating HUD - loading action skill module - Ready_**

His HUD has been updated with a gray icon of an upside down cross with demonic wings.

_'Well that's just u_nnecessarily edgy...'

Since this skill only required one point to be maxed out it unlocked the second tier of _Demonic_ skilltree.

_[Bloody Lust] - _[Kill Skill]_ \- killing an enemy will increase your overall_ damage_ dealt and movement speed for a few seconds._

_[Lusty Blood] - Increases your overall damage dealt based on your current health level, the lower it is, the greater the bonus!_

There was also an exclamation mark next to them, and after clicking on it this message appeared:

**_Term 'Overall damage dealt' applies to ALL kinds of damage you deal (unarmed, melee, gun, grenade, elemental, etc.)_**

He was walking forward while reading this entire time, and he hasn't been really paying attention to what's going on around him. Usually he would never let his guard down, but all of this 'Skilltree' stuff really occupied his attention. It was so fascinating. He almost walked into a tree, which made him come back to reality.

...

Y'Know, this whole initiation feels like a rollercoaster - slowly and calmly, seemingly nothing happens, just like now, just a walk in a park, but he knew damn well that shit can his the fan literally any second here. He looked at his right hand, which still had some holes in it from the beowolf's bite, and that wound made him think.

_'Those beowolves are actually not quite as weak as I thought, if there were more of them I could've died... Also, that bear completely shitted on me, if not the fact that Glutton is stupidly overpowered I for sure would get mauled... Those 'grimm' are much stronger than I thought at first... But then again, I remember facing stronger beasts on Pandora, and winning relatively easily... What if... No... Unless...' - _he looked at his left, artificial arm - _'Could I have somehow become **weaker** before I woke up on this planet?'_ \- he clenched his silver-ish fist and looked closer at the pulsating purple veins on it. - _'Just what is this arm? At first I thought this was just some eridian machinery, but it really feels like an **actual **arm. Well, I don't feel pain on it, but I do feel soft sensations, and even temperature to some degree. It feels more like an actual body that a prosthesis... What if it's not machine but some type of organic... something? Like... an alien symbiote or something? Who the fuck knows what those eridians could come up with at this point?'_

As he was walking the trees around him stopped appearing. At first he thought that he finally exited the forest, but no. He just reached some sort of a clearing, probably the very clearing he wanted to originally land on. He continued his march regardless, and when he reached the very center of it he couldn't help but feel completely exposed. He carefully looked around, and noticed some distorted shapes in between the trees running all around him. Again. Soon many dark figures emerged from within, a yet another Beowolf pack. This time, however, there was one bigger one amongst standard-sized ones. Probably an alpha, he guessed. They started sprinting towards him with high speed.

_'C'mon, Jay, you can do this... No room for any mistakes, you know you can...' - _He encouraged himself in his mind.

He readied his Chimera and Glutton in the Beowolf pistol form, and planned his next moves. He waited until the wolves will get closer, and once they were around 20m (65 f) away from him he begun his show.

_'First, stun them!'_ \- He launched the [Intimidating Howl] from his pistol, making the regular Beowolves slow down significantly. The Alpha, however, didn't seem affected at all.

_'Looks like this one isn't scared as easily!' - _He thought while firing a large amount of shots from both of his handguns at it.

Three Chimera shots flied at it, the first one only barely grazing its shoulder, leaving some acid on it. Second shot also wasn't very effective - it hit it in its palm, making it lose balance for a second, as the limb has been weakly electrocuted. The final shot has been much more potent, hitting the creature right in the middle of its chest, causing a small standard explosion to occur, that knocked the Alpha back a bit. In the meantime it also got hit by a number of .45s, that pierced right through it and also damaged some smaller beowolves that were standing behind it.

Jay holstered his Chimera and transformed the Glutton into the Boarbatusk form, switching it to its Alt fire mode. He pressed the trigger, which made the gun launch the circular saw attached under its barrels towards the slightly stunned Alpha. The blade started rolling on the ground, similar to how Boarbatusks roll, but with even faster speed than them. A mix of dirt and sand was getting launched into the air as the buzzsaw travelled, leaving a trail behind it. Soon enough the buzzsaw finally met its target. Alpha howled in pain as black blood spilled everywhere, but Jacob wasn't even looking at it anymore. Instead, his attention was occupied by the ten other beowolves that have recovered from the fear effect and were now running straight at him.

The very first one reached him...

**_*BANG* *BANG*_**

He fired two shots from his shotty in a quick succession, knocking it back and seriously damaging it. But there's no time to finish it off.

Two more already reached. He smacked one in its mouth with his gun's stock, making it recoil back. He turned around, quickly loaded two new shots, kicked that one beowolf that wanted to attack him from behind, knocking it back. He turned around once again, and fired one shot directly into the mouth of the first beowolf, that already recovered, killing it finally.

_'ONE!'_

Another one jumped at him, so he ducked by rolling under it. While he was below it he quickly digistructed his Quad and fired, recreating his stunt from his very first day here and launching the poor wolf high into the air. Without even reloading the gun he dematerialised it back into his inventory.

_'TWO!'_

The one that got kicked in its mouth already recovered, and took his turn to attack the vault hunter. He launched its palm with claws at him, just to have it recoil back in pain as Jacob cut it with his machete.

**_*SLASH* *SLASH* *SLASH*_**

A couple of quick attacks released a lot of blood everywhere, making the beowolf release its very last howl.

_'THREE!'_

However, there still was seven more of them to take care of, and he was only running out of guns ready to fire.

_'Damn, if only i had at least one grenade!'_

Three beowolves attacked him simultaneously from three different sides. One by one, they were trying to bite him, but he kept defending himself with his machete. He kept slashing and slashing, but these assholes just wouldn't stop attacking. Soon, a fourth one decided to join in on the fun, biting him in his leg.

He gritted his teeth and hissed in pain, and immediately launched his machete straight into fucker's head, indulging it deep in its brain.

_'FOUR!'_

He struggled to pull the weapon out, and in that short period of time one of the others scratched him in his right shoulder, ruining his suit.

**_*BANG* *BANG*_**

He fired the two rounds that were still inside Chimera's cylinder at point blank range into the creature's chest, which covered the wolf in acid and set it ablaze. The animal recoiled back and succumbed to the elemental effects that slowly drained its health.

_'FIVE!'_

One of the beowolves jumped at him from behind, and indulged its claws in his back. Yet somehow Jacob managed to not fall over even with a massive wolf's weight dangling on him. The wolf also tried biting into his left shoulder, breaking its teeth on it. Utilizing that short moment in which the beowolf whined Jacob grabbed it with the said arm and pulled it over himself, smashing it into the ground right before his feet.

**_*SLASH* *SLASH* *SLASH*_**

After three very quick stabs into the downed best it turned into dust.

_'SIX!'_

He pulled out the Glutton in its default form, as it already recharged a few moments ago, and started firing at the remaining four. Most of his shots missed, but he managed to land one lucky headshot on one of them, killing it instantly.

_'SEVEN!'_

The other three already closed in on him. Seeing that one of them was preparing to jump at him, Jacob started charging the Glutton up, and prepared for the jump.

The beowolf has indeed jumped at him, but since he saw it coming he was able to barely dodge it. While the wolf was still mid-air next to him he stabbed it in its back and pushed it into the ground. He aimed the Glutton at him, and released the partially charged shot, creating a big hole in its back that one could clearly see through.

_'EIGHT!'_

The two remaining beowolves both attacked him from two opposing sides, and both bit into his arms.

**_"UGH!"_** \- he exclaimed as his right wrist has been bit into by one of the beowolves.

The one beowolf that bit into his left arm was the unlucky one, as its teeth have also been broken on the silver material.

Jacob backhanded the face of the beowolf with broken teeth, knocking it back a little, and then punched the one that was munching on his right arm in between its eyes.

Bad decision.

The beowolf also got knocked back, but this time it also ripped out a big portion of Jacob's flesh with it.

If there was tons of black blood on his hand before, not it has been covered by the crimson red blood of his own.

_'Shield already broke again!? I need to somehow get a better one!'_

Ignoring the huge amounts of pain in his right wrist he picked up his dropped machete with his left hand and started slashing both beowolves. He kept slashin and slashing until he noticed something odd.

They... weren't bleeding...

He quickly glanced over his blade.

It got dull from all the fighting, meaning his only usable weapon right now is...

**_*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*_**

... The Glutton's default form, from which he had shot a couple of times at the remaining beowolves, damaging them, but leaving them both with slivers of their health bars, so that he can finish them off with his bare hands in order to activate [Glory Kill].

He launched his dull blade with all of his remaining strength at one of the wounded beowolves' neck, piercing it through. He left the blade there and approached the last wolf standing.

**_"NINE"_** \- he said in between his heavy breaths.

He grabbed the wolf's jaws with both of his hands and started pulling them in two different directions. He kept increasing his force more and more, until...

**_*CRACK*_**

With his left hand he ripped off the beowolf's lower jaw, and tossed it to the side. Tons of black blood came out and the animal's insides started dangling off the huge hole in its neck uncomfortably. He raised his metallic arm and punched the creature in its face, managing to break the skull on its head into pieces.

**_"TEN."_**

**_..._**

**_..._**

**_..._**

**_..._**

He dropped to his knees, exhausted. Looking at his health bar he noticed that it was just above 30%, meaning that theoretically if he had to keep fighting he could still use his action skill and see what it's all about. Maybe some other day. He looked around, seeing how the once green clearing has turned into a sea of black blood, a proof of his massacre.

"Heh... Goteem..." - he quietly said with a smirk on his face.

He was REALLY tired.

**_*GROOOWL*_**

"OH FUCK OFF ALREADY!"

He looked over his shoulder to face to see a rather familiar beowolf. The Alpha, although it had its left arm missing, cut clean off by the Boarbatusk gun's special ability. Looks like it wants revenge for its lost limb and comrades.

With a neutral look on his face Jay slowly got up to his feet and pulled out his Glutton, after which he started charging it up.

"Alpha. The strongest of the group. The leader. All others are below him and listen to him. Alphas get all the food first, and also all the females." - Jacob gave a simplified definition of the word to noone in particular. - "Y'know, it's kinda funny... When you think about it, humans also have 'Alphas' in form of the rich dudes with power somewhere up there, while others are forced to live like dogs, barely managing to survive on their own... Bullshit, isn't it?"

Alpha's only response was to growl at him again, and start slowly approaching him.

"When you think about it even more, human 'society' isn't that different from animalistic prides... We are just smart enough to distract ourselves from this fact... But in reality, humans aren't any different from animals... They **_are_** animals... And there's nothing we can do about it, even with the best technology and inventions we might create... Because, again, at the most basic of levels... Humans **_are_** animals. And if that's the case..." - he kept saying things while his gun kept charging up.

The Alpha leaped at him with speed much greater than any normal Beowolf, fangs exposed, and claws reaching out towards him.

**_"I WANT TO BE AN ALPHA!"_** \- he shouted while raising his fully charged Glutton and firing right at the creature.

A flashbang explosion, and a feeling of a warm liquid all over his face (Beowolf's blood) were the very next things he felt.

A few seconds later, after regaining his composure he could see the Alpha's headless corpse laying right before his feet.

_'Pfft... So much for an 'Alpha'... His underlings caused more trouble...'_

**_Alpha Beowolf [Grimm Series] - Glutton form unlocked._**

Once the adrenaline in his brain went away he started feeling tired once again. The pain from all of his wounds finally kicked in, his knees and arms started feeling heavy, and so did his eyelids. For a moment it was completely quiet.

...

...

...

And then he started hearing something. Something unnatural. An engine. A Bullhead's engine.

'_Ozzie and Sarius are already coming for me? Did I somehow fail?' - _he thought while looking at himself.

He looked like shit.

Actually.

_'And to think... I thought... I am the strongest person on this planet...' - _his thoughts started getting slower, and everything around also started feeling more distant. The world around him started getting blurrier and blurrier, and also darker and darker.

_'Ahh shit... Here we go again...'_ \- he thought while passing out.

* * *

**_Jacob Rook has earned the title [The Howling Alpha]!_**

**_-Animals that live in groups will now instinctively fear you (Applies to some faunus as well)_**

**_ 35% damage vs animals_**

**_\- [Intimidating Howl] is now more effective_**

* * *

**_You have levelled up! _**

**_You have unspent skillpoints (2)!_**

* * *

**_Ursa Major_**

**_Type: Machine Gun_**

**_Ammo: 7.62x54 mm_**

**_Damage: B_**

**_Accurate Range: 20m (65.5_** **_ft)_**

**_Fire Rate: 650 rpm_**

**_Handling: _****_D_**

**_Magazine Size: 200_**

**_Passive:_**

**_\- FMJ (increased material penetration)_**

**_150% melee damage_**

**_Special:_**

**_\- Bipod (increase accuracy and stability while deployed)_**

**_\- Melee form (Iron Gauntlet)_**

* * *

**_Boarbatusk_**

**_Type: Shotgun_**

**_Ammo: 12th gauge shells_**

**_Damage: B_**

**_Accurate Range: 5 m (16.4 f)_**

**_Fire Rate: N/A_**

**_Handling: A_**

**_Magazine Size: 2_**

**_Passive:_**

**_N/A_**

**_Special:_**

**_Underslung Buzzsaw thrower (10 min recharge)_**

* * *

**_Alpha Beowolf_**

**_Type: Marksman Rifle_**

**_Ammo: .308 win_**

**_Damage: A_**

**_Accurate Range: 40 m (131 f)_**

**_Fire Rate: N/A_**

**_Handling: C_**

**_Magazine Size: 10_**

**_Passive:_**

**_-Piercing shots_**

**_50% melee damage_**

**_Special:_**

**_[Intimidating Howl] (5 min recharge)_**

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / Creatures]_**

**_Boarbatusk_**

**_A grimm creature resembling a warthog, or a boar. Compared to other grimm this one is quite weak. High stamina and speed, but that's about it. Has sharp tusks, and an ability to charge-roll, similarly to Pandora's spiderants. Best course of action is to provoke a charge, and dodge at the last moment for an easy kill. Using heavier ammunition is a waste. Can be found in forests_****_._**

**_Threat: D-_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / Creatures]_**

**_Alpha Beowolf_**

**_Most beowolf packs will have an alpha specimen - the leader. Bigger and stronger than normal beowolves, with ability to more or less coordinate its packs moves, making the pack deadlier in general. Should be the priority to take down, as a pack without an alpha will become less organised._**

**_Threat: C-_**

* * *

**\||/**


	7. 5 - New Proposition

**_*KNOCK* *KNOCK*_** \- someone knocked on his room's door.

"Hey, can I come in?" - a soft feminine voice spoke.

"Yes, mom." - the young boy replied.

The woman came inside. She was in her late twenties, but she was very beautiful. She had long dark brown hair and grey eyes that looked tired with life, but happy to see her only child. She was wearing some makeshift clothes made out of a few rags sewn together.

"It's your big day! And I got something for you!" - she cheerfully said while pulling out something that she was hiding behind her back.

A book.

"T-Thanks..." - he said, unable to get happy, because he knew _exactly_ how she got the money for that.

"Oh, c'moon Jay, It's your 10th birthday, aren't you happy?"

"..."

The mother gave her son a look of concern, and sat next to him on his bed. She patted his head and hugged him.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?" - she said after kissing him on his forehead.

"Y-yes mom, I love you too..." - he said, trying to break free from her grasp.

She giggled and released him. She looked around his room, glancing over his bookshelf with many books.

"You really like reading, don't you?"

"Yes, there is a lot of thing to learn from that."

Those weren't any stories or fairy tales, all of those were handbooks of various different subjects.

"That's so nice to hear! I'm sure there isn't a single person who read as much as you on this _entire_ planet!"

"R-Really?"

"Of course! Now, why won't you read the book I just gave you? It's about biology, just like you asked!"

"T-thanks again, mom."

She giggled and got up. She went towards the door and turned over her shoulder.

"Love you!" - she said and left.

...

...

...

"I love you too..." - he whispered while a stream of tears appeared on his face.

* * *

He woke up with tears running across his face. He was laying on some sort of a bed. The room he was in was white, and there were some empty hospital beds around. He heard some beeping sounds and some muffled voices.

_'So Ozzie send me to a hospital? Does that mean I failed the initiation?'_

He cleaned his face from his tears and tried getting up. While doing so he grunted, which made the muffled voices behind a curtain cease. Instinctively he froze in place. He started hearing approaching footsteps, until finally a figure peeked from behind the curtain. A young girl, around his age probably, with short blue hair, that covered her right eye, with her left one being purple ('_well, right one is almost certainly purple too...'_) She was also wearing a nurse uniform, which made her look very attractive. Upon noticing him her curious expression changed into a look of surprise.

"S-Sis!" - she called out to someone still behind the curtain - "He woke up! What do we do!?"

Soon enough another figure peeked, another young girl, nigh-identical in terms of appearance, with the only difference being her pink hair, that this time covered her left eye.

"Oh, you're still alive." - she said in bored voice after looking at Jacob.

"Who're you?" - Jay asked with a small frown.

"I am Ram, a nurse who has to take care of you." - she said, obviously not too satisfied with those circumstances.

"A-and I'm Rem! I'm taking care of you too!" - The other one said, ashamed.

* * *

**_Rem and Ram_**

* * *

**_It's worth getting hurt for them..._**

* * *

_'Ah, they must be twin sisters. Did Ozzie ordered them to fix me up?'_

He looked at them both curiously, making Ram frown and Rem's cheeks redden a bit.

_'The question is, 'which of them died her hair?'... Eh, whatever...'_

"So how's my body?" - he asked.

"W-whaaa...?" - Rem's face became even redder than before.

"Y'know, how bad the damage is." - he said with neutral expression, unsure what she thought.

"You'll be fine." - Ram said with cold voice.

"Oh really?" - he said while straightening and stretching his arms. - "Well then, where am I?"

"A-at Beacon's clinic. Mr. Ozpin brought you here earlier with help of that pilot and they placed you down here and you were covered in blood and you had so many scratch and bite marks on you and it was so scary-y!" - Rem said while putting her hands together.

"What she said." - Ram apathetically added.

Looking at his health bar he noticed he was back at 100%. He looked at his torso, noticing that his previous apparel was gone, replaced by a green gown wore by hospital patients... With absolutely nothing underneath... Which means...

He looked at the nurse sisters with a frown.

"Where're my clothes?"

This time both of them looked away with red cheeks.

He stared at them, dumbfounded for a minute, until he finally decided to shrug it off with a sigh.

"Hey, aren't the two of you... too young to be nurses?"

"Oh! What is it, you don't like two young girls taking care of you? Would you perhaps prefer some old hags?" - Angered Ram said, after returning to her usual self.

Jacob deadpanned and raised one of his eyebrows.

"Actually we're both nineteen, and serving here are our practices during our medical studies..." - Rem quietly explained.

"Hmmph... Alright then... So where's Ozpin now?"

"It's _Mister_ Ozpin for you. And don't worry, he'll arrive soon." - Ram answered/scolded.

_'Ugh, fuck off you bitch...' - _he said in his mind

"But of course, thank you." - he said aloud with a fake smile. - "So anyway, how long have I been laying here?"

"It should be around two hours... " - Rem said after looking at the clock. - "... By the way, your regeneration abilities are surprisingly high, do you perhaps have some kind of regeneration semblance?" - she curiously asked.

"M-more or less..." - he answered while looking through the window that was on one of the walls, The sky was becoming orange, meaning it was evening. Looking at the clock he noticed that it's around 7pm.

"Ohh... how cool!" - she said with a soft smile.

"Explains how he didn't die..." - Apathetic Ram added, causing Jay to deadpan once again.

At that moment Rem pulled out some sort of a clipboard and sat on the chair right next to him.

"Now, will you mind me asking you some questions?" - she said with a bright smile.

"S-sure, go ahead."

"So for starters, what's your name? You haven't even introduced yourself to us yet!"

"Ugh, right, sorry... Jacob Rook."

She wrote that down.

"And how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Hah! So you are a minor!" - Ram mocked.

"Don't you have any nurse things to do?" - Jay asked with bored voice.

"Hmmp. Talk about showing no gratitude. Take care of him, sis, I'll go get professor Ozpin."

"Okayy!"

_'Wait, so she lied when she said he is already coming!?'_

He wanted to say something, but Rem gave him another question.

"Do you remember everything what happened before you passed out?"

"Y-yes... Very clearly actually..."

"Alright... Do you have any allergies?"

"N-no, I don't think so..."

"Do you take any medicine regularly?"

"No..."

"Have you ever had any operations before?"

"No."

"Okay... " - she put the clipboard down and took out some sort of a syringe. - "...Could I draw some of your blood, please?"

Her face was so cheerful and sweet that he just couldn't bring himself to refuse, not to mention the fact that he simply didn't have any reasons to do so in the first place.

He raised his right arm and moved it closer to her. She swiftly pulled out a compression bandage and, after disinfecting the inner side of his elbow she raised the big needle.

"You aren't afraid of needles, are you?" - she asked.

"N-no..." - he absently answered while staring at her big bust, which was very close to his face.

"Okay then, It'll only sting a bit!" - she said as she indulged the needle inside him and drew some blood. He looked at the needle, which was slowly getting filled up with his blood, and then at Rem, right into her purple eyes... well, eye. She also looked at him, and seeing how he's been looking at her almost immediately turned away in embarrassment.

This awkward situation continued for a moment until Rem finished her task. After she put the now blood-filled syringe aside she looked at him again with a look of concern.

"Listen, Jacob... Mr. Ozpin told me not to ask for that, but I just have to ... Just what happened to your left arm?"

_'Ugh. This question again. At this point I should just come up with a fake story just so that people will fuck off.'_

"Lost it because of a Grimm..." - was the most believable story he could come up with.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that..." - she said with concerned voice.

"Eh, could be worse." - he said with a smirk - "It's much stronger than the original anyway." - he said while flexing with it.

Rem giggled and gave him another bright smile. - "Well, it's good to see that you are in good shape right now!" - she then picked up her clipboard and his blood, and stroked his head. - "I'll have to leave for a minute or two, you keep laying here and get better!"

"Yes, ma'am." - he answered with a smirk

"Don't call me that! We're almost the same age!" - she said and giggled, after which she left.

The moment she left the room his smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of frustration. He sighed and shook his head. He looked at his left arm, and got happy once he noticed that he still had his PDA attached.

_'At least they couldn't take _that_ off.'_

He opened his skilltrees and looked at the skills he can get. He decided to put one point into [Lusty Blood] and one into [Bloody Lust].

He also remembered about his newest unlocked gun, so he materialized the Glutton and changed it into the Alpha Beowolf form. It was a rifle that looked like an M16, painted with the standard Grimm color palette, a beowolf skull on the side, and a wolf's palm on the side of the magazine. It also had a bayonet at the end of its barrel, but a much smaller one than the Ursa Major machine gun.

While inspecting the gun, he heard some approaching footsteps. He quickly dematerialized the gun and laid down, as if he hadn't moved from his place.

The sound of door opening, a couple of loud footsteps, and three figures appeared. Rem, Ram, and Ozpin himself.

"You're finally awake!" - Ozpin noted with a soft smile.

"Truly, you are observant, aren't you?" - he used Ozpin's words against him.

The man chuckled at that response and looked at the nurse sisters.

"Could you please leave the two of us alone for a minute or two?" - He asked them.

"Yes, sir." - Ram answered while bowing her head

"Okay!" - Rem also bowed.

Once the two of them finally left Ozpin's smile disappeared, replaced by a serious expression, aimed right at him.

"You." - he said.

_'Awww shiiiit...' - _he thought while sensing trouble.

"How do you feel?" - Ozpin asked, flipping his expectations.

"G-good enough." - he hesitantly answered.

"Good."

...

"Let's start from zero." - Ozpin said after not receiving any answer from Jacob. - "I am professor Ozpin, the head teacher of Beacon, and I'm offering you the ability to attend to it. Now, introduce yourself properly."

"... I am Jacob Rook, a boy with no place to call home." - Jay said with emotionless face.

"Hmmph, how poetic... So what about my offer? Will you accept it?"

"I already said I have nowhere else to go." - he said with lowered head.

"So you accept?"

"Yes, I guess I do."

"What do you plan to do in the future?"

_'...Just what do I want to do?... What do I want to achieve?...'_ \- Jacob thought about the subject for a long time, before finally answering:

"I don't know." - he said while shrugging.

"Well, I guess not everyone has plans for that... Now, as for your 'initiation'..."

"Did I fail?"

"...No, you did not fail, in fact, you surpassed any expectations I had towards you..." - he said while looking at him with a slight frown.

"That good or bad?" - Jacob asked.

"... I don't really know..."

...

"Well, first of all I would want to apologize, for some reason there was much more Grimm than I thought there will be, but you somehow managed to come on top regardless... I saw that you have quite an arsenal in your 'storage', and you skillfully switch between all of your available weapons depending on the situation, I saw that you possess the necessary skill to wield them all properly, you are surprisingly durable and manage to keep calm even in the most tense of situations. And finally, I saw that you have absolutely no fear when fighting with creatures much bigger and stronger than you. All of these traits are already much more than I could demand from you..."

"...So I passed?" - Jay asked, wanting to make sure.

"Yes, you did, you passed."

"...But...?"

"No buts. No catches, no nothing. You passed and that's it."

"Oh... Okay..." - he slowly replied. - "So what now?"

"Can you stand?"

"I think I can..."

"Well then, as a form of celebration I ordered you a pizza. Now get up and put some clothes on..." - He said while dropping a bag with some of his clothes on his bed.

Ozpin turned away and started going towards the exit.

"Come to my office when you'll have time, I'd like to talk with you a bit more..."

"Sure, sure..." - he replied while changing his clothes. Once he put on his pants and camo shorts he looked towards the door, noticing Ozpin who was leaving, and the two nurse sisters coming inside instead.

"Ugh, just put something on." - Ram said with emotionless face and turned 180 degrees away after noticing him shirtless.

Rem on the other hand just couldn't take her eyes off his muscular body and stared at him with red cheeks and empty eyes.

With a slight frown on his face he put his white t-shirt on, which caused her to return to reality. She blinked and hesitantly pulled out some sort of a paper with an awkward smile. She reached it out to him, making him notice that it was some kind of a questionnaire.

"I.. I mean w-we would be really thankful if you could fill this up and leave us a good rating, it will help us in our studies!" - she said while giving it to him.

**_How do you rate the service provided to you?_**

**_[ _****_] Very Good_**

**_[ _****_] Good_**

**_[ _****_] OK_**

**_[ _****_] Bad_**

**_[ _****_] Terrible_**

He looked at her with bored expression, about to toss it into trash or something, but after noticing her sweet smile he hesitantly complied and marked [Very Good]. He also quickly marked all the other ones, most of which were basic questions of how effective the treatment was.

"Thank you very much~" - she sweetly said while taking the paper back from him.

"What she said." - Ram added with neutral tone while still facing away from him.

_'So similar yet so different...' - _he thought while raising one of his eyebrows.

"Can I leave now?" - he asked.

"Yes you can." - Ram answered.

"But please be careful and don't hurt yourself so much again!" - Rem smiled.

"I'll try my best." - he answered while softly smiling himself, after which he left the clinic.

* * *

He entered his room, noticing that the three unused beds have already been carried out, making the room feel much bigger and more spacious than before.

_'I should get myself some useful furniture... Like a workbench to repair guns or craft ammo...'_

Looking at his bed he noticed a pizza box laying on it, with a note saying:

**_Consider this your dinner/supper._**

**_If you won't eat everything you can put the leftovers inside the fridge in the canteen's kitchen_**

**_-Ozpin_**

He opened the box to be greeted by a quite large margheritta that was still steaming hot. Looks like they barely missed themselves.

He opened the box and grabbed a slice.

_'If this guy really wants to gain my trust...'_

He took a big bite

_'...Then he's doing a good job.'_

He sat on his bed and continued eating.

_'Alright then, I have a place to stay and a guarantee that I won't starve to death... Now I should focus on trying to get back to Pandora... But where to even start? Atlas is probably my best bet, since it's the most technologically advanced of kingdoms... But to get there and be able to achieve anything I will have to get money... Lots of money... I mean, I could just do some mercenary work on the side, I'm sure that some mafia would hire an assassin to wipe out the competition or something... I'll have to look on the dark web...'_

He was laying and eating pizza while thinking about what should he do on this planet. What if there's no coming back? Just how did he even en up here in the first place?

...

Red Forest.

That's where he woke up, so that's where he should go first.

He activated his PDA and searched for Vale's maps to download on the web. He did the same with all other kingdoms and the entirety of the planet, and using his PDA map-copying function he updated his minimap so that it had ALL of Remnant marked as discovered. This gave him a much better understanding of what is where, which will surely help later on.

_'Okay, but how do I explain it to Ozpin? 'Hey Ozzie, I'm going to that 'Forever Fall Forest' to hunt for some more types of Grimm.'? Seeing how badly damaged I got after today's 'hunt' I doubt he will let me go alone... __I'll probably have to sneak out...' - _He thought while finishing his fourth pizza slice - _'Speaking of sneaking out...'_

He booted up a special search engine that had access to the so called 'dark web'. Since his PDA didn't have an IP address he didn't have to worry about some serial killers finding his location, so he was able to explore that side of the internet freely.

There was... A lot of weird shit...

Ranging from guns and dust ammo (trash) for sale, through drugs, to even sex slaves. (Both human and faunus)

He scrolled past all of that as if they were some annoying ads and kept searching for some 'jobs' to take on.

_'I'll probably make a dark-web site of my own where I'll just say that I'm a gun-for-hire and people could give me contracts...' - _He looked through the window, noticing that it was already getting dark - _'But that can wait, I have to keep playing pretend that I'm a normal teenager...' - _He thought, and cringed.

_'Normal student by day, murdering mercenary by night... Just what is my life now? Some type of Anime?' - _he thought and shook his head while swallowing the last part of a pizza slice. He reached his hand to the box, just to get disappointed when he realized that it was the last one. - _'Everything nice has to end some day__... Even pizza...'_

He turned off his PDA and got up from his bed. He took the empty pizza box with intent to toss it into trash. And after that, he went straight to Ozpin's office.

* * *

"So what did you want to talk about?" - he asked him without any sort of greetings after going inside Ozpin's office. He was sitting by his desk, leaning over some papers and documents.

"Ah, you came..." - Ozpin calmly stated after raising his head. - "How was the pizza?"

"Good enough."

"If you say so..." - Ozpin said while shrugging - "... So, I guess you'd like me to get straight to the point, wouldn't you?"

"If you could..." - Jay answered with a shrug of his own.

"Well, to put it simply, it appears that after all I can't really make you my student..."

"What? And why is that?" - Jay asked with a confused smile. It was so hard for him to accept the idea of becoming a high school student and now that he did accept it this guy suddenly changes his mind. What the fuck?

"Well, it would simply draw too much attention. If the media would learn that there is a singular person at Beacon who doesn't have a team they would start digging for more information. Your existence will be exposed, they will learn that I 'adopted' you, they will start spreading gossips that I give you special treatment, which would probably result in me losing my job, and you getting sent to some orphanage once they'll learn that that whole 'adoption' was faked. And neither of us would want those thing, would we?"

Jay stayed silent for a moment, letting those words sink in.

"...I get it... so what then?"

Ozpin reached for something under his desk.

"Since I already promised helping you I'm not planning on abandoning you, don't worry." - he pulled out two things, some plastic card, and some kind of a tablet. - "These are for you."

Jacob picked them up and inspected them. He saw those kinds of tablets on the internet while he was making research on this planet - they were called 'scrolls', and were basically this world's equivalent of a PDA, or a cellphone. He can make his PDA scan it later and copy all of its functions, just like he did with that computer in the library. The plastic card was an ID. Or, to be more precise, _his_ ID, with some faked information. For example it said that he was born in Atlas, and that he was...

"Nineteen years old?" - he asked with a raised eyebrow - "I think you fucked something up."

Ozpin chuckled - "First of all, _language_, second: No, I made it like this on purpose."

_'On purpose? But since I'm legally of age then I don't have to be his student, I could just look for a normal jo - ...'_ \- and that's when he realized.

He looked at Ozpin with a suspicious frown.

"Just what are you planning?" - he asked.

"Well, to put it simply... There is nothing more that my school could teach you... Other than good manners maybe... Anyway, the point is, I have a new proposition for you... Very similarly, you will be able to live here, and even attend to lessons in a way, but in a slightly different way than being a regular student."

Ozpin paused for a minute, so that Jay could analise those words.

"What do you mean?" - Jacob asked, genuinely curious.

Ozpin smirked and looked straight into his eyes.

"Here's my proposition..."

* * *

One day has passed, and nothing particularly interesting happened. It was now the beginning of the school year, and all the students have arrived a while ago. Ozpin's plan was to gather them all at the arena, which also doubled as a hall for announcements and speeches apparently, and give them a welcoming speech. Jacob, rather than being among those students, was standing behind the stage, ready to show himself when Ozpin tells him to.

Ozpin came closer to the microphone and cleared his throat, silencing all the chatting students.

"I'll try to keep this brief..." - he started - "You have traveled here in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you are finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people... But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction..." - he said while slightly looking over his shoulder, where Jay would be. - "...You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you, to take the first step... Now, to finish this speech, I would want to introduce your future teachers..." - He said while gesturing towards the three people standing behind him. - "Ms. Glynda Goodwitch, who specializes in semblance control..." - she bowed as he said those words - "Mr. Peter Port, who specializes in Grimm creatures..." - he also bowed - "...Mr. Bartholomew Oobleck, who specializes in Remnant's history..." - and so did he - "...and someone... rather special..."

Jacob sighed and started slowly getting on the stage.

"You see, we will have a special guest during this school year. Let me introduce you to my friend, Jacob Rook." - Ozpin said while gesturing towards him.

Jacob was wearing a two-piece suit with a black tie that Ozpin bough him and gave to him this morning. He coldly glanced over all the gathered students, who were whispering between themselves. His eyes stopped, when he noticed a familiar red-black figure, who was also staring at him with dropped jaw and widened eyes.

_'Oh right, I almost forgot... SHE will attend here...'_ \- he stated in his mind with mixed emotions.

"Jacob is a fresh graduate from Atlesian Academy, and will join us during this year for his practises to gain the experience needed to become a Huntsman teacher in the future. He won't be actually teaching you, but will take role of a... _teachers' assistant, _I guess you could say... Is there anything you would want to say, Jacob?" - Ozpin asked him after turning towards him and pointing the microphone towards him.

With a bored expression he slowly approached, leaned over the microphone, and said those words:

"...I hope I won't get disappointed..."

"Same here..." - Ozpin added, and gave him a nod, signaling that they both can leave the stage.

While getting off of it, he looked towards Ruby one last time, noticing how she was embracing some blonde girl with one hand, and pointing towards him with the other, smiling, and saying something to her... Probably something like 'OhmygoshIknowhim!' or some shit... Ugh...

He lowered his head, and followed Ozpin while looking at the ground.

Part of him seriously regretted accepting Ozpin's offer.

* * *

**_To be Continued..._**

* * *

_**[PDA Data / People]**_

_**Rem **_

_**Race: Human [Female]**_

_**Nationality: Remnant / Vale**_

_**Age: 19**_

_**Height: 1.65 m (5' 5")**_

_**Description: A nurse at Beacon academy. Studies medicine. Sweet and caring, but also rather naive. Combat capabilities... rather low. Ram's twin sister.**_

_**Threat: None**_

_**Semblance: Unknown**_

* * *

_**[PDA Data / People]**_

_**Ram**_

_**Race: Human [Female]**_

_**Nationality: Remnant / Vale**_

_**Age: 19**_

_**Height: 1.65 m (5' 5")**_

_**Description: A nurse at Beacon academy. Studies medicine. Rather bitchy and cold. Rem's twin sister.**_

_**Threat: None**_

_**Semblance: Unknown**_

* * *

**\||/**


	8. 6 - Light and Dark

"...Aaand done!" - satisfied Jay said while finishing making his dark-website and turning it on. His PDA could also function as a server for it.

He sighed and laid down in his bed, noticing that it was already getting dark. He wasted almost an entire day making that website. Oh well, it's not like he had anything to do today anyway... But now that he finished he wanted to go outside and do something. Preferably something to make himself stronger, like Grimm hunting to unlock more Glutton forms...

..._Glutton forms..._

_...I need ammunition for the new ones..._

_...Ammunition..._

**_*GASP*_**

_'Oh, right! I need to somehow get gunpowder ammunition! If nobody makes any on this planet I'll just have to go and create some myself!'_

Pandoran bandits may be stupid, but almost every single one of them knows how to build or repair a gun, and also how to craft ammunition. And Jay was much smarter than a common bandit, so of course he knew how to make some as well!

_'Right, right, what do I need again? Potassium Nitrate, charcoal and sulfur... But how do I get it? Do we have a chemistry class here at Beacon?_ _I don't know actually... If not then I guess I'll just have to rob a pharmacist's or something...'_ \- He looked outside the window, noticing that, unsurprisingly, it still was just as late as a minute ago. - _'...Maybe tomorrow...'_

With a grunt he got up and stretched his limbs, scratched his ass, and went outside of his room. After opening the door he was greeted by an empty hallway full of empty rooms on each side.

_'Those rooms are meant for students, meaning that tomorrow they will be all occupied... I just hope they won't be too loud at nights...'_ \- he thought, and froze in place once he realized that it sounded like some old man's complaining. He shook his head and continued his march. - _'Worst case scenario I'll just ask for a more isolated room... Or... Dare I ask for an office of mine? After all I AM a god damn teacher now! Well, a 'teacher's assistant', I guess.. Nice fucking idea, Ozzie, just what are you even trying to accomplish this way? Though I can't really say I'm dissatisfied, all I have to do is to help teachers demonstrate things and occasionally teach those kids a couple of things myself, and in return I get a fancy room, money, food, and even unlimited dust ammo supply... though the last one is kinda trash... Speaking of, what do Huntsmen are even meant to do? I'm pretty sure they aren't just for Grimm-hunting... Eh, as long as it involves killing things I'm sure I'll manage...'_

With those thoughts he left the dormitory and stopped, once he realized he doesn't even know where is he going.

_'Should I just go for a walk to clear my mind? Without people and animals trying to kill you 24/7 life is pretty fucking boring I have to say... Hmmm... Well, I am pretty curious what the 'students' are all like, so I guess it won't hurt if I go and see for myself... They all should be in the ball room tonight... Eh, why not?'_

He went towards his new destination, without much expectations.

...

And as he was walking, he heard something.

It was very subtle, but he managed to hear it anyway...

...Some... footsteps... fast... someone is running towards him...

Instinctively he digistructed his gun, the Chimera, and hid it behind himself. He faced towards the source of the footsteps, which were coming from just behind the corner. Once he heard that whoever that was was right next to him he quickly exposed himself and stood in the running person's way.

The rather small figure ran straight into him, bouncing off of him. Without even flinching he took a better look at the person.

"Ow-ee!"

"Oh..." - He recalled his gun - "It's _you."_

The person in question was Ruby Rose herself, dressed in some pyjamas consisting of a black tank top and some loose white pants with _roses_ all over it.

* * *

**_Ruby Rose_**

* * *

**_A flower with thorns..._**

* * *

'..._She's pretty much the very first person I met here on this planet, and since at the time I was still confused I tried making her my 'friend' so that she would help me not get lost in here... But now thanks to Ozpin I don't really need her anymore... Though, on the other hand, she IS hella cute...'_

The girl pouted and grabbed her forehead that she hurt while running into him.

"I'm so sorry-y" - she quietly said with closed eyes, causing him to roll his eyes and sigh.

She opened her eyes, and after seeing his face she brightened up and smiled.

"Ohmygoshit'syou!" - she said while raising her arms towards him. - "What are you doing here?"

"I work here I guess..." - he said with bored voice, as always, hiding any emotions, he also reached his hand to her, as he remembered she liked it the last time.

"I had no idea you were a graduate! I was sure you were a student just like me!" - she said with a smile while grabbing his hand and getting up to her feet.

"Yeah... " - '_I myself thought that too at one point...'_ \- "...Welp, I'm here to gain experience on how to become a huntsman teacher in the future... _or something..."_

"So not only you are a huntsman, but you are on such a high level that you want to teach others how to be one? That's so cool!" - she said while getting a little bit closer to him.

"Y-yeah... I... want to teach others how to be a huntsman, y'know, the more of us the better, right?" - he said with a smug grin on his face, although it was just an act. In reality he was just 'going with the flow'.

"Yes, that's right! ... Hey, but if that's the case, then how old are you? I thought you were eighteen at most!" - she said while looking at him.

"N-Nineteen... " - _'__I think?' - _"... Why do you want to know?"

"Ah, no reason, I was just curious..." - she said while looking to the side. What Jacob didn't see were her red cheeks and a wide smile.

"A-Alright then... " - he said while looking in the direction she came from - "... What were you doing back there?"

"Oh, I just went to the bathroom to change my clothes for my pyjamas, y'know..."

"Fair enough... Well then, if you don't have to do anything else then go back to the ball room... I am, in a way, responsible for you..."

_'Ozpin said that I will have to take care of students, meaning protect them from danger, make sure that they make their work, and even punish them in case they misbehave... Or something like that... Jeez, the hell does he think I am? Daycare?'_

"Oh, right, but how does this work? Are you allowed to associate with the students?" - she asked him while they started going towards the ball room.

He scratched his head while trying to remember if Ozpin even said anything about not being able to be friends with students.

"I... don't think I'm not allowed to talk with you guys, though I'm not sure..."

"Oh, so is it okay for us to talk together every once in a while?" - she asked while getting _very_ close to him.

"Yeah, I don't see a problem with that..." - he said while shrugging.

"Oh! That's great!" - she said while giving him a toothy smile.

_'Damn! She is cuteness personified! What do I do!?' - _he panicked in his mind for a second, while keeping a straight face - _'Wait! ... I have an idea...'_

"...Even if it IS prohibited, no rules will stop me from seeing you, Ruby." - he said with a soft smirk.

Her face reddened as she quickly looked away, and even increased the distance between the two of them.

_'HAH! She fell for it! I even used her name at the end for bonus damage points!'_

"Whoah... That is... really... nice of you..."

_'Was that too much? Perhaps I'm too fast... hmm.. how about that then:'_

"We're friends after all, aren't we?" - he said to keep her uncertain and not to scare her.

"Oh... Right, hehe~"

At that moment they started hearing many distorted voices, as they were getting closer to the ball room that was full of students that were preparing to go to sleep. Gaining a new bright idea, he accelerated a bit to reach the door faster than her, and hold it open for her.

"Now, go get a rest, I heard that you'll have an 'initiation' tomorrow." - he said with soft voice.

"Y-yeah, sure!" - she smiled back at him and started slowly coming inside, but she stopped in the doorway and looked back at him.

"So... could we talk together again tomorrow?" - she asked while putting her hands together, with lowered head.

"What are you talking about?" - he said, causing her to look up with opened mouth, about to say something, but he was faster - "Of course! I already said it, didn't I?"

"Oh, yes you did, heh, silly me!" - she said with an embarrassed smile - "Well then see you later!"

"Cya!" - he said while she started going inside. He stood in the doorway for a few seconds, looking at her shapely ass, that pleasantly jiggled with her every step. - "... Nice PJs, by the way!" - he added with a smug grin.

After hearing those words she turned over her shoulder to look at him, but he already closed the door.

_'Pfft... Talking to girls is much more fun than I thought! Leaving my room this evening was one of the best decisions in my life! Hah!'_ \- he said in his mind with a satisfied smirk. But after a few seconds his expression returned to its usual, emotionless look.

_'...Wait, what the fuck were I even doing before meeting her? ... Shit, I forgot...'_

* * *

Ozpin was in his office, busy with his seemingly endless paperwork. However at this very moment he had a guest, who was sitting right in front of him, on the opposite side of his desk, with crossed legs and a frown aimed at him.

"Out of all the people I thought YOU are somewhat responsible, Ozpin, but you managed to prove me wrong..." - Glynda Goodwitch said with calm, but sharp tone.

"It's about the boy, isn't it?" - Ozpin said in almost defeated tone after letting out a sigh.

"What else could this be about!? Of course it's about him! Is this something you planned together with Ironwood? This person has a bad influence on you!"

Although Ozpin's face was emotionless, at that moment he almost laughed, when he realized that Glynda sounded like a mother scolding her child.

"Well... Yes, in a way, Ironwood had something to do with it, but I assure you the idea was mine."

"Pfft. So then tell me, what's all of this about? Hiring someone who _barely_ classifies as an adult, who has_ actual_ crimes on his account, and letting him be close to young students who can be very vulnerable to his bad influence! _Especially_ female students."

Once again, Ozpin had to do his best to hold in a chuckle.

"I think your concerns are a bit exaggerated... Yes, I hadn't known him for a long time, but I think I got the gist of his character during those three days, and I have to say: _I trust him._ Why? I can't really give you a reason. As for your concerns... Yes, he is just _nineteen_, but I assure you, that mentally he is much more mature than most others boys his age. As for his... _stunts_ from three days ago... Well, as much as I can't really justify the hot-dog incident, the _'From Dust till Dawn massacre' _in my opinion got seriously exaggerated... He was just defending himself, _and_ miss Ruby Rose, so I personally find it justifiable. As for the last part..."

Ozpin grabbed his coffee mug - his inseparable friend - and took a sip.

"Hmm.. How to put it in words... I believe Jacob is at a stage where you simply _can't _teach him good morals and behavior. I'm sure he has his reasons for being the way he is, but here is where my proposition for him comes in play: I want to expose him to... a new feeling... the feeling of... _responsibility _... I hope that by making him take care of other people he will be able to leave his demons behind him and change for the better... if not for his own sake, then for the sake of someone he might care about..."

...

After a short while of silence Glynda sighed and got up from her chair.

"I am still far from convinced, but I think I understand what you are _trying_ to achieve, so for the time being I'll let it be."

She turned around and started going towards the exit. She opened the door, and turned over her shoulder, looking at him one last time.

"Part of me wants your 'plan' to succeed... But the other part believes it will be wasted effort..."

And with those words, she was gone.

**_*SIGH*_**

Ozpin felt as if a heavy object got removed from pressing his chest.

_'Good thing I decided to not tell her about Jacob's real age... The only people who know about it are me, him, and the nurse sisters..._ _Also, I really have to thank Ironwood for forging Jacob's graduate papers and agreeing to my plan... Did Glynda really say that he can have bad influence on female students? In reality he is still just seventeen, so I guess it's okay for him to find himself a girlfriend... In fact I'd say it would be good for his character...'_

At that moment Ozpin frowned, as a new concern manifested itself in his mind.

_'What if he... No... He isn't the type of a guy to go and try to make himself a 'harem', is he?'_

* * *

Jacob returned to his room and laid down in his bed, he didn't have anything left to do today so he decided to go to sleep early in order to wake up early in the morning and re-continue his harsh training was keeping for a couple of years at this point, which always started with a long run in the morning. He closed his eyes and was about to fade away, when suddenly...

**_You have new messages! (1)_**

\- An announcement popped up on his HUD, waking him up.

He raised an eyebrow, and decided to see what's this about.

**_Sender: 'Justice-Seeker'_**

**_Topic: Assassination Job_**

_'Ohh, Already? HAH! This planet tries to look civilized on the outside, but in reality it's just as wicked as any other! HAH!'_

**_"Greetings, Mr. Raven, I am sure you are expecting some criminal or a psychopath to contact you and I'm sure that you are quite a bad person yourself, but this no longer concerns me. I am... Well, was... a father of a cute five-year old girl, that meant everything to me... But five months ago someone took her from me... I'm sure you can guess what happened to her, so I won't go into the details... I have tried asking for help from both the police, and even some Huntsmen, but they were not able to help me... I know exactly who took my darling away from me, but the police wasn't able to capture him due to... insufficient evidence... Hilarious, isn't it? In reality the only reason why he's not rotting inside of jail yet is because he has connections to some mafia... But I don't care! I don't care about the mafia, I don't care about useless police, and I don't care about the law! This person... no, this animal has to DIE! I have attached documents containing target's information and where you can find him which I acquired using some other sites'... services... I'm sure that you yourself are probably just as evil as him, but I don't care. Just. Kill him. Make him suffer for taking my daughter away from me! I will transfer 100 lien to your account immediately after you'll accept this... 'quest' as you called them on your site, and then 5900 more when I'll learn that you succeeded."_**

_'Holy shit...'_ \- he thought with lowered head

...

_'... SIX **THOUSAND** lien!? HAH! What a day to be alive! Hell yeah I'll kill a random pedo for so much!' - _with those words inside his head and a sinister smile on his face, he quickly wrote a reply, which had only one word in it :

**_Accepted._**

Jacob quickly got up from his bed, put on his white hoodie, and materialized all of his guns. He checked them all, and after making sure all were combat-ready, he left his room. It was 9 pm, so it wasn't that late yet. If he'll make a good plan he may even finish the job this very night!

**_You have new messages (1)!_**

This message also had only one word in it:

**_Good._**

On top of it, he also received a transfer to his PDA's bank account, making his Lien count go up from 52 to 152.

He put his hood on, and left Beacon, unseen by anyone.

_'The hunt is on.'_

* * *

**_New Mission:_**

**_The Predator:_**

**_-Kill the target [ ]_**

**_Rewards:_**

**_\- 5900 Lien_**

**_400 EXP_**

* * *

**_To Be Continued._**

* * *

_**[PDA Data / Misc]**_

_**Dark Web**_

_**-T****he part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable. Used mostly in order to break the law one way or the other, ranging from drug selling, to hiring paid assassins.**_

_**Lien**_

_**\- Remnant's currency, value in dollars unknown.**_

* * *

**\****||/**


	9. 7 - Keeping the Mask on

**_Change Log_**

**_1 - We will be having a small change of directions with this fic, as I realised I deviated from what I originally wanted with it. In short, we will sacrifice any smut/sex scenes if favor of action and plot, so yeah, no hentai-worthy content for now. ...Sorry?_**

**_2 - Announcements will now be at the beginning of chapters_**

**_3 - Completely forgot to mention some characters will be OOC, don't hurt me please._**

**_4 - All previous chapters' afterwords replaced with some 'Data Logs' as I called them_**

**_5 - Final exams are getting closer and I feel like I don't remember shit, for the next two months I probably won't upload._**

**_6 - I am sad and lonely._**

* * *

Jacob was leaning against a building's wall, hidden within an alleyway's shadow, observing the entrance to a certain block of flats on the other side of the road. It was late, and midnight was coming.

Soon enough, a man came into his sight, going towards the entrance. Since he matched the description he got from his customer, Jacob soon followed him, while staying unnoticed.

The man reached the entrance, and stopped in front of the intercom. As he was typing in the code to open the doors, Jacob hid behind the corner, and waited for him to get in. Once the man disappeared inside the building, he quickly run up to the still opened door, which as had learned had the tendency to close at slow rates.

Careful not to make too much noise, he slowly followed his target. He saw how he got inside the elevator, and ascended. He patiently waited to see on which floor he stopped, and then used the staircase to get there himself.

Coming up the stairs, he heard the man enter his apartment and close the door behind him.

_'Alright, I got him cornered, now just to not fuck this up...'_

He approached the door, and looked around to confirm lack of any surveillance cameras.

He took a breath in, and materialized a lockpick.

After a few minutes of struggling, he picked the lock and slowly opened the door, while constantly begin careful not to make any sound.

He entered the apartment, that was rather small and messy. He heard some noises coming from his right, it sounded like his target was doing something in the kitchen, as he heard some water splashing and the sound of dishes being cleaned.

"Fuck, I forgot to do it earlier and now its all dry..." - he heard his target quiet complain.

Jacob smiled under his nose and entered the kitchen. The man had his back turned towards him, and was too occupied with the dishes to notice him.

As Jacob slowly approached, he grabbed a cleaver that was laying on the counter.

_'I gotta say, he looks pretty normal for a pedo... Almost makes me wonder if my customer made the whole thing up...'_

As if fate itself heard him, the man stopped doing the dishes, and after wiping his hands he reached to his pocket, pulling out a small pair of white panties.

Jacob's pupils shrunk, and without thinking he swung with the cleaver at the man with all he had in his right hand.

**_*SLASH*_**

With a meaty sound, and a splatter of blood the man's hand dropped to the floor, still holding the panties.

"...What the fu-**_UUUCK!"_**

It appeared the man's reaction was comically delayed, probably due to the unexpected shock. He grabbed his bleeding stump, and dropped down to the floor, leaning against the counter.

Jacob followed with a quick kick to the gut, to prevent the guy from screaming too much.

"...Wh...Why!?" - the man managed to say.

Jacob raised his eyebrow, and looked at the pair of panties that were now covered in man's blood on the floor. The man also looked at them, and his eyes widened.

"N-No! It's not what it looks like! You don't understand!"

Jacob raised his other eyebrow and used his PDA to display a photo of his customer's daughter that he got from him.

The man's face went pale, probably due to combination of shock and blood loss.

"...B... But he said I'll be safe! Who sent you!? Who are you even!?"

Jacob didn't say anything, only raised his bloody cleaver.

"W-Wait! I give up! You are a huntsman, right!? T-then just take me to prison!"

"Prison?" - Jacob asked while lowering his cleaver.

"Y-yes! You already handicapped me, so going any further would mean consequences for you! My brother's a _very_ important person, and once he finds out he won't rest until you pay!"

Jacob smirked.

"Prison is for people. Animals like you are put down."

And with that, he struck the man with the cleaver, splitting his head in two.

**_Mission Complete!_**

**_The Predator_**

**_Turn In (X)_**

...

"...Also, I'm not a huntsman..."

He pulled the cleaver out and tossed it aside. His white hoodie and face got covered in blood, so he took the blouse off and used it to wipe his face clean. After that he put it next to the stove, and turned the gas on.

He took a picture of the dead man and send it to his customer to show that the deed has been done, and then used the next couple of minutes to thoroughly loot the apartment from anything that looked valuable.

Loaded with goods, he opened the window once he smelt that the gas has spreaded throughout the apartment.

The night was just as calm as before.

He breathed in the fresh air from outside, and lit a lighter in his hand.

"...I'm a _Vault Hunter._"

And with those words, he tossed the lit lighter behind him, inside the apartment, while jumping through the window himself.

**_*BOOM*_**

He used his arm prosthesis to stab the side of the building that was on the other side of the alleyway, and slowly descend utilizing the innate friction of his fingers inside the concrete.

Once he landed he looked up, to notice flames and dark smoke coming from within the window he just jumped from.

'_I should have a couple of minutes before police will arrive, so I better leave.'_

And so, he left the crime scene while staying in the shadows, careful not to get noticed by anyone.

As he was walking, he received a message on his PDA, from his customers. It consisted only of a singular word:

"**_Good."_**

With this message, the rest of his payment has been added to his inventory, raising his Lien count to a whooping 6052. The experience gain was also enough to raise his level by one, giving him a singular skillpoint, that he decided to use on [Pumping Iron] to increase his physical strength by a bit.

As he was walking, a thought entered his mind:

'_If the guy knew his address, why didn't he kill him himself? ...Was he just too big of a pussy to get his hands dirty? What kind of a father would be afraid to avenge his children? Pfft. Well, whatever, that's easy 6k in my pocket at least…'_

He kept walking, using his minimap to efficiently navigate through the city to get back to Beacon, which has become his base of operations for now. However, as he was walking he realized the area he was in now seemed familiar. After a closer inspection he remembered that this is where Ozpin took him after interrogating him, to get him new clothes. The said clothes shop was also there, still open, although not for long.

Jacob's eyes aimed at the black-red trench coat that caught his eye on that very day. This time however, he had just enough money to afford it.

A smirk appeared on his face.

* * *

'_Life's good.'_

That's what Cage Schwarz, the head of Vale's arms-dealing mafia thought to himself while partially submerging in a jacuzzi in his villa's yard, with a couple of beautiful ladies in bikinis waiting for him there.

He was a man in his forties, with short black hair and blue eyes. His body was that of a bodybuilder that looked good and strong despite his age.

In his mind, it was time for a well deserved relaxation earned after a day of hard work managing all of his group's operations, centered mainly around supplying various different groups with weapons. In present times of uncertainty, he was one of the people to successfully capitalize on it, earning millions of lien in his arms dealing business. That in itself wasn't his biggest problem however, that spot belonged to his older brother, Nigel, who was much less successful in life than him. The constant frustration gained from the difference in their financial situation forced him to relieve his stress using girls that were… _too young. _But hey, a brother's a brother, right? Shame that it takes a lot of resources to keep his shenanigans hidden. Last time some information leaked, causing the father of his latest victim to learn his identity. But that's not a big deal. The corrupted judge already deemed him innocent, and the father himself wasn't any important person. Even if he'll try anything, he can just send some of his men to… _explain the situation._

Cage smirked. He could already see those headlines in newspapers: "_Father who lost his daughter hanged himself…'_ or something like that… Actually, no, now that he thought about it that seemed like a boring article, with enough caution they may even completely avoid any media coverage.

'_Anyway, that's not a concern for now, right now I should focus on what's truly important…'_

And with this thought in his head, he embraced the two women closest to him while groping their breasts a little. After earning a positive reaction from them, he smirked and leaned in for a kiss with one of them.

With good looks, power, and wealth women come by themselves, you don't even have to try to gain their affection.

As Schwarz was enjoying himself, a sudden voice coming from within his villa caused him to cease his session of making out.

"Excuse me, boss, but this is urgent…" - it was the voice of one of his men, who was standing beside the jacuzzi with a scroll in his hand.

"...I think I told you not to interrupt me when I'm with the ladies…" - he said with harsh tone, causing the women next to him to giggle playfully.

"...It's about your brother, boss."

Cage frowned and released a heavy sigh. He got out of the bathtub, earning a couple of protests from his partners, that he ignored completely. He also took a glass of wine that belonged to one of them with him.

"What happened, did he rape another girl? I swear to god this idiot just can't keep his dick in his pants." - he said after taking a sip and increasing the distance between them and the women in the jacuzzi so that they won't hear their conversation.

"...I'm sorry boss, but he's dead."

Schwarz froze in place, and looked at him with a frown.

"...What?"

"We've just received a report that boss's brother's apartment has exploded, with him still inside. The police said it was a gas leak…"

'_...A gas leak? Like hell I'd fall for that! It's one of my own tricks!'_

Anger started building up inside him, so much so that he tightened his grip on the wine glass in his hand. Tighter and tighter, until finally…

**_*CRACK*_**

The glass shattered inside his hand, sending thousands of glass fragments everywhere, and causing a mix of leftover wine and his own blood to start dripping down on concrete.

"B-Boss!?" - the underling asked with nervous voice.

Using his bloody hand Schwarz grabbed him by the collar, and looked straight into his eyes.

"You will find out who is responsible for that." - he said with seemingly calm tone, but the crazy look in his eyes said otherwise.

"Y-yes, sir!"

He pushed the guy all the way back inside the villa, through the opened back doors.

"...Sorry, ladies, but it looks like I have some work to do…" - he said while turning over his shoulder to women in jacuzzi. While they didn't hear anything, but they saw that it was something serious.

He heard some words of complains, but he paid no attention to them.

'_The bastard who is responsible for that will regret ever being born!'_

* * *

Morning sunshine started piercing through the rather clouded skies, leaving Beacon's complex in a half-shadow. It wasn't even 5 am yet, and the dark atmosphere reflected that.

As Jacob slowly made his way towards the main gate, he raised his eyebrow when he noticed a car on the parking lot, with lights still on, and some slim figure emerging from within. It was hard to see any details in these shadows, but the distorted shape of longer hair on the person's head was enough of a clue for him to assume that it was a female. Most likely. Who knows on this planet?

With a slight frown on his face, he digistructed his Chimera revolver and hid it under his new cloak.

New cloak, right. Overpriced as fuck, but at least it was classy. Mostly black, with red ends, and a cool edgy-looking hood. However, the effect was completely ruined by his casual T-shirt, jeans, and simple trainers he was wearing underneath. He never really cared about his appearance, he got the cloak mostly because he missed his old one that was destroyed when he woke up here.

He kept his hand on the gun's grip, from far away it could look like he was simply trying to keep his hands warm, as the temperature was rather low.

It appeared that the woman (now confirmed), was getting something from her car's trunk, as she quite nicely bend over it. Unfortunately for Jay's perverted ass, she was wearing some sort of a black coat that successfully denied him the luxury of witnessing anything too nice.

"..._How am I supposed to carry all of this on my own?"_ \- he heard her say.

The woman slowly straightened up, and turned around.

"_OH My!..._"- she exclaimed as she practically jumped in place from surprise after seeing him - "...I… I'm sorry, you scared me back there."

He raised one of his eyebrows as he inspected the woman. Approximately the same height as him, tanned skin. Her eyes and hair were of the same color - peachy orange. Her hair was loose, and more or less shoulder-length.

"...Are you by any chance… _Jacob Rook_?" - she asked.

'_...Okay, first things first, how does she know my name? Second, what is she doing here at this hour?'_

Under his cloak, his finger touched the trigger of his gun, but he remained calm for now.

"Depends on who's asking."

Her eyes widened for a short while, but then she regained her composure, and frowned at him a little.

"Well… I'm professor Peach, the chemistry teacher here, at Beacon."

* * *

**_Peach_**

* * *

**_...Your chemical romance..._**

* * *

'_Wait, there's more than just those three? … Oh my god, _of course _there's more! It's a fucking _academy_, after all.'_

Jacob sighed, as he knew it was time to return to playing pretend. Underneath his cloak his gun had already dematerialized back into his inventory.

"...Well then, please excuse me _madam_, being a security guard is also one of my tasks." - he said while bowing his head before her.

"Oh, well then that explains it. If they assigned me to keep watch at such hours I would be grumpy too!" - she said with a soft smile on her face. - "Anyway, it is actually a good thing that you're here, would you be so kind to help me carry my equipment to my classroom?" - she asked while gesturing towards a pretty big-sized crate that was inside the trunk.

"But of course!" - he said with fake enthusiasm in his voice.

"Fantastic! I'll grab by the front and you grab by the re-..." - her sentence however, was cut short by Jacob who almost effortlessly picked the whole thing up by himself. Getting this one point in [Pumping Iron] was already paying off. Although the skill was supposed to increase unarmed and melee damage, it looked like it increased his physical strength as a side effect as well. Either that or it has something to do with that silver arm.

With the crate on his shoulder, Jacob looked at Peach with a raised eyebrow.

"A… _Astonishing!_ Well then, assistant, follow me!" - she said while closing her car and departing towards Beacon's main gate. But as she did so, she quickly stopped in place, and turned over her shoulder to him.

"You _are_ Jacob, right?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Oh, good, I just realized you never introduced yourself in the end… Anyway, it is so great to finally have an 'official' assistant!"

Jacob raised an eyebrow.

"_Official?"_

"Well, so far whenever I needed an assistant I just took a voluntary student, but, between you and me, it didn't always go well… heh…"

He raised the other one as well.

"...Is that so?"

"Eh, don't worry, nothing _bad_ has ever happened… _yet_."

"...Wha-?"

"Anyway! Why don't you tell me something about you? When I heard from Ozpin about you yesterday I only heard the bare minimums. That you're a graduate from Atlesian academy and that apparently you will be working here as an assistant. Although it was sudden, I got really happy at the thought of finally having someone _qualified_ help me out during experiments! And a young and handsome boy as you too, hehe! Speaking of, how old are you even?"

Jacob's face grimaced in confusion.

'_This woman is not subtle at all, is she?'_

"N-Nineteen?"

"...And why did it sound like a question?" - she looked at him with a smug grin.

"Uhh… I mean… uh…"

"I'm just joking, relax!" - she smiled and giggled. - "...Ahh, teenage years… If only I was still that young…"- she absently complained with melancholy in her voice.

Jacob looked to the side. Talking to girls was fun. Talking to _women_… was a bit harder.

As they continued walking in awkward silence, they have already entered the main building. It was at this moment when Peach decided to renew their conversation.

"...If you're a graduate from Atlas… That means you had to part ways with your teammates, don't you miss them?"

Quick thinking. Students at Beacon form teams of four, as he learned during his first days here. It wouldn't be too big of a stretch to assume Atlesian academy had the same policy.

"Yeah, sometimes, but I'm sure they'll be just fine."

"I see… Anyway, how do you like it in Vale so far?"

"It's… _Not that bad_."

"Well it's nice to hear that! What do you think about our school then?"

"Dunno yet. Seems good so far."

"And I assure you it will only get better with time! Hopefully this will be the start of a long and good cooperation between us, assistant!" - she proclaimed while smiling at him.

As their conversation progressed, they were getting closer and closer to their destination, until finally Peach gave him the sign to stop after getting close to one of many classroom doors.

"We're here. Just drop the case here, I'll manage from now on. Thank you for your help once again."

"Uh-huh."

As he put the case down, he heard some soft footsteps behind him. He turned his head over his shoulder, and even clenched his fist, but he calmed down once he saw a small female figure in something that looked like a maid uniform.

"Good morning, miss Peach. It is good to see you have finally arrived." - Rem greeted the woman, and bowed her head before her.

"It is good to see you too, Rem. What are you doing at such an early hour here?"

"It is my turn to go to restock supplies today, so please excuse me as I should be going already."

"Of course! But before that…"

"..Yes?"

Peach turned to Jacob, and smirked at him.

"Assistant! Go help our maid out! Seems like she could use a porter!"

Although Jacob's face remained mostly emotionless, his eyebrow twitched. Having to pretend being a 'Mr. Nice Guy' was already rage-inducing on its own, and if there's one thing he hates, it's being ordered around.

"_But of course!" - _he said with a soft, fake smile, and bowed his head.

'_God damn it I HATE having to lick others' assholes like that…'_

"It's… _unnecessary_. I can manage on my own."

Jacob slowly looked up, to face Rem's ashamed face. She was _really_ pretty. So pretty he wanted to find some nice poetic epithets, but since he was a simpleton coming from one big post-apocalyptic wasteland of a planet the best he could say was just that. _Pretty. _The maid uniform only added to the effect. Truly, it was a sight that was simply impossible to witness on Pandora.

"Nonsense! That's what he's here for, after all! To help everyone out!"

Jacob frowned a little, but forced himself to let this one pass. He once again looked at Rem, who had her mouth opened, trying to come up with a response.

'_...Well, I suppose I can lick that specific asshole after all.'_ \- he thought, and chuckled at his own lewdness.

"Don't worry Rem. It's the least I can do in return. You've saved my life, after all."

"Oh really? That's something I didn't know, hehe…" - Peach giggled and looked at the maid with a playful smirk.

"Ah! I-it's not like that! I'm sure you wouldn't die even without my help, plus Ram helped too!" - having lost her cool, Rem tried to wave it off with an ashamed expression.

'_Yeah, but she's a bitch.'_

"Now, now, I'd love to hear what exactly happened but all of us still have things to do. So, you two, go get those supplies or whatever. That's an order from your higher-up. To both of you."

Jacob's fist clenched once again. _Order. Higher up._ Those words triggered some fury deep inside him, and he didn't even really know why. Quickly connecting all the dots, he figured that it had something to do with that weird flashback thingy he had while jumping out of Sarius' bullhead during his 'Initiation'.

"Well… In that case, okay."- Rem more or less regained her composure, and said those words in emotionless voice, while looking to the side. - "Follow me, Jacob."

"...Uh-huh." - he followed her, while relaxing his muscles.

* * *

As Ruby slowly opened her eyes, she took a deep breath in, awakening from her dreams. Speaking of dreams, she just had a very nice one. It was about…

...

_She forgot already._ Oh well, happens. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, sitting up on her sleeping bag. Her hair was messy, and eyes clearly still tired. She looked around the ball room, some students were still sleeping, but quite a high number of them was already awake, having some quiet conversations. She looked to her side, where her sister was lying, still sleeping. Her face was mostly covered by her blonde hair, it looked like she wriggled in her sleep. Oh well.

Ruby yawned and stretched her hands. Once she got up to her feet, she felt nature's call, and went towards the exit. Carefully maneuvering between still sleeping students on the floor on her tiptoes she finally reached the door, and, full of enthusiasm, rapidly opened them wide.

**_*TWACK*_**

* * *

"So you're a maid too?" - Jacob ended the awkward silence after a while of walking beside Rem through Beacon's hall, effectively following the same path as with Peach, albeit in the opposite direction.

"Yes. When nurses' services aren't needed me and Ram double as maids here as a secondary job." - she replied with calm voice, while looking to the side, refusing to look at him directly.

"...I see."

Jacob looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Since he was on her right, he was in her blind spot, so he could allow himself for a better inspection. She already looked good enough in a nurse uniform, but maid uniform was a whole new level. Paired with white high stockings and black booties, it created a sight that was quite literally _otherwordly_ to him. As he slightly frowned a drop of sweat appeared on his forehead.

'_...On Pandora she wouldn't last a minute like this. Bandits would definitely enjoy her - ...'_

**_*TWACK*_**

His thoughts were interrupted when the door right next to him rapidly opened, and hit him with a high velocity. Rem widened her eyes, but otherwise managed to stay somewhat calm.

"_OHMYGOSHI'MSOSORRY!"_ \- this voice, although didn't belong to Rem, was familiar nonetheless.

Against any sense of reasoning and logic, Jacob stood unphased, albeit with an aching face. As he gently pushed the door away he looked at the girl that caused this anime cliche with his eyes hidden in the shadow of his fringe.

He slowly raised his head, revealing his gray eyes, and raised one of his eyebrows.

"_...Are you okay?"_ \- Ruby quietly asked while covering her mouth with both of her hands. She was still in her pyjamas, which combined with her uncertainty gave off a strong feeling of innocence.

He sighed and opened his mouth to say something, but Rem answered for him.

"Yes he is." - she said while getting closer to him and embracing his arm. All while keeping her emotionless face and eye contact with Ruby.

As Jacob rose his other eyebrow, he looked at her.

"...Rem?"

"I've healed him from much worse injuries. He's strong." - Rem ignored him, and was now speaking in a seemingly emotionless voice hidden mockery in it, just like her twin sister Ram tended to.

"Oh, I see, that's good. But I'm still sorry!"- Ruby said while giving Jacob those fabled 'puppy eyes'

"...It's fin-..."

"_We _are busy right now. And you should go back to the ball room for now, _student_." - Rem said in the same voice while tugging tighter on his arm, putting an emphasis on first and last words.

"Oh… okay…" - Ruby smiled, rather confused at first. It was then when she finally noticed what Rem was doing. Jacob saw how her pupils momentarily shrunk in shock, as she most likely realized something she didn't like. - "_...Right…"_ \- she said, in a much less cheerful voice.

"Exactly. Now, let's go, Jacob." - Rem said while pulling by his sleeve, towards the main exit from the building.

"_Hey, Jay…"_ \- Ruby tried to talk to him personally.

"Yeah?"

"_Will you see me after my initiation?"_

"Wha? Sure, why no-..."

"No, he will be busy." - Rem interrupted and pulled him even harder, this time even managing to move him a couple of inches.

"_...Right…" - _Ruby responded with a smile, but empty eyes and voice.

Rem pulled him with even more strength, she finally managed to get him moving.

Jacob looked at Ruby who was still in her PJs, and waving goodbye to him, and then at Rem, wearing a maid costume, pulling him by his sleeve.

'_...Do they know something I don't?'_

As he waved back to Ruby, he quickly turned back to Rem, and followed her. In a bizzarre contrast to what just happened, right now Rem refused to even look at him, despite still holding onto his sleeve.

'_Women are weird at times, I have to say.'_

* * *

"That is _NOT_ a food shop." - Jacob noted.

As the two of them left the supply van that they took to get to town (Rem was the driver, as he didn't trust himself to drive and _NOT_ kill someone in the process) Jacob looked at the shop that they arrived at. How could he tell that it was not a grocery shop or whatever? Heh, maybe the guns on display had something to do with it.

"We'll get food later. Now we need to get some ammunition supplies. After all _someone_ asked for most of Beacon's reserves."

'_Ahh, I see now…'_

As he wordlessly followed the maid girl Jacob glanced over the guns on display. He wondered if they could work with gunpowder ammunition, and since he still had quite some money left he wanted to buy some for himself. They were very… _flashy_, for the lack of any better term. A gun is a tool meant for one thing and one thing only. Killing. As long as it gets the job done, the appearance hardly matters. It appeared that people on this planet didn't really understand that, as guns here looked like something taken straight out of a science fiction novel. And a pretty bad one at that.

But who knows? One shouldn't judge things based on appearance, after all.

As Rem opened the door, a ring hanged above it rang, gaining the shopkeeper's attention.

He was sitting behind a desk in the centre of the shop, with many guns and other kinds of weaponry placed in glass-cases on both sides of the shop. Overall, the shop looked much more… _elegant_ than any gun shop one could find on Pandora. The shopkeeper himself was an older man, probably in his fifties, with short gray hair, and a gray goatee. His eyes were blue, and his face wrinkled.

"Ah, hello, Rem." - he said after noticing the maid, after which his eyes shifted towards Jacob. - "...And that must be the new guy, huh?"

* * *

**_Janus_**

* * *

**_Your friendly neighborhood arms dealer!_**

* * *

"Good morning, Mr. Janus." - Rem said while bowing her head a little - "We're here for the ordered ammo supplies."

"...Yeah, I've got your order ready in the backroom." - he replied while pointing his finger at the door behind him, but then he once again looked at Jacob, who was inspecting some guns on the side. - "What you're looking at, _dipshit?"_

The sudden curse caused Rem to widen her eyes and open her mouth with intention to protest, but Jacob was faster to respond.

"At your wares, _geezer."_

"Please! Stop with the cursing for no reason!" - Rem voiced her discontent.

"Heh, so you have guts after all, eh? Most idiots your age would get all confused and awkward, trying to sweet talk their way out of this."

"Is that so?" - Jacob absently answered, his sight still focused on the guns in front of him.

"You gonna just look at it like that or are you actually going to buy anything?"

"Thinking about it."

"Hah! Do you at least have any money? I don't give a shit if you're Ozpin's assistant or whatever, I ain't giving you shit for free!"

"As a matter of fact I do. Speaking of, isn't being rude to clients like that bad for business or something?"

Janus smirked and chuckled under his nose. He looked at Rem, who was visibly panicking, not knowing what to do in this situation.

"Don't worry Rem, it's just friendly teasing…" - he said while smiling at her. - "...Why won't you go to the back room and check if everything's how it's supposed to be? Me and mr. hot shot here will have a short talk in the meantime?"

"Umm…" - Rem's eyes switched to Jacob, who was looking at them over his shoulder, with rather bored expression, and then back at the older man, who was still smiling. - "... Okay…" - and with that, she reluctantly complied.

The moment the door behind her closed, Janus' smile disappeared, as he left his desk and approached the younger male in the shop.

"...So you buyin' or not?" - Janus asked while gesturing towards the guns that Jacob was staring at.

"...Depends. Just how sturdy are these?"

"What!? Are you going on a war or something? They are significantly more durable than standard military equipment. They won't break even after a few years of extreme usage."

"Hmm… I see… Would they withstand using ammunition that would be three times stronger than standard dust bullets?"

"What!?"

Jacob sighed. Thankfully he already came up with a fake little story how to explain it.

"I only use custom made ammunition in my guns. As I said, it's around three times stronger than standard dust rounds."

"Okay… You had my curiosity, but now you have my full attention. What is it the secret to your custom ammunition? Is it some specific dust mixture?"

"_Wouldn't you like to know?_ Maybe if you were nicer I would tell you."

As Janus chuckled, he shook his head and spoke up.

"Listen up, _shitter_. I _used to_ be like that, all nice and sweet to every young huntsman-wannabe like you, but I quickly realized that I was sending most of them to their deaths. At some point I just swore to not sell my stuff to people who aren't strong enough to survive more than one day with it."

"Not to be rude or anything but I kind of don't give a shit."

As Jacob finished that sentence he bit himself in the tongue.

'_Oh fuck I accidently dropped my act for a second.'_

He looked at Janus, who was frowning at him, but soon enough he broke down into laughter.

"HAHAAHA! …. _Of course you don't_… Well, anyway, it looks like you did your homework about firearms, and you are an Atlesian graduate, or so I heard at least, so I guess you do classify as 'strong enough' in this shop. Have you chosen anything yet?"

"...Not really… Though, tell me, why are all of those guns so… _colorful?_"

"Ah, you see, nowadays it's not enough if the gun works properly. Now it also has to _look nice_. Most of my clients are young hunters, after all, and these idiots want they weapons to be shiny and beautiful. Idiocy in my eyes but whatever. Do _you_ care about appearance that much?"

"No… Actually I share your viewpoint."

"Heh, so you're not a _complete_ idiot after all."

Jacob allowed himself to smile under his nose. He was starting to like the guy.

Moving onto the next glass case, Jacob saw a collection of many different guns that looked like heavily modified antiques from Terra-1. For example there was an assault rifle that looked like an HK 416, a submachine gun that looked like the infamous Tommy gun, and an LMG that looked like an even more infamous MG42, the '_Hitler's Buzzsaw'_ or something like that. What connected all the weapons in this case was the fact that all of them were emerald-greenish in colour, with silver and golden ornaments here and there. There was also a card with the collection's name:

**_Emerald Collection._**

"Ah, these ones… You see, my granddaughter studies art or something, and just like me she's also interested in guns. Next thing I know is that she takes some of my wares and turns them into modern art, heh. At first I got angry, but I quickly realized that we could make business off of that. 'Emerald Collection' is one of her newest inventions. What do you think."

"...Well they surely do look nice, but again, in the end what matters is whether they get the job done."

"Yeah, I know, I know… But I can assure you that their quality is just as good as their looks."

Jacob looked around once again, noticing that most of the glass cases were filled with other 'collections'. He saw a red one, a black one, and a yellow one. His gaze switched to a shelf full of different ammunition boxes, and once he noticed them a certain idea sparked in his brain. He frowned a little and started thinking about it more deeply...

As Jacob opened his mouth to say something, the back doors opened, with Rem peeking from behind them.

"Everything's checked. Jacob, If you want to be useful, now would be a great moment." - she said with emotionless face.

"Yeah, I'm coming… I just have one more thing to say…" - Jacob said while pointing his finger at Janus at the end.

"What is it, _dipshit_?" - Janus answered without any hostility in his voice.

A demonic smirk appeared on Jacob's face.

"_Wanna be rich?"_

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Professor Peach_**

**_Race: Human [Female]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant / Vale_**

**_Age: _****~30**

**_Height: 1.75 m (5.7 ft)_**

**_Description: Teacher at Beacon Academy, specializes in dust. The closest you can get to a chemistry teacher there. Seems friendly, with no signs of hostility yet._**

**_Semblance: Unknown._**

**_Threat: B_**

* * *

**_[PDA Data / People]_**

**_Janus_**

**_Race: Human [Male]_**

**_Nationality: Remnant / Vale_**

**_Age: ~55_**

**_Height: 1.9 m (6.2 ft)_**

**_Description: Owner of a gun shop. An old geezer with an attitude. His granddaughter is an artist. Combat capabilities unknown._**

**_Semblance: Unknown_**

**_Threat: C_**

* * *

**\/**


End file.
